Cold medicine next target in drug war

July 22, 2005

DARRELL L. BREESE\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Mat-Su Borough officials want a law that will limit access to the key ingredients used to manufacture methamphetamine. Led by Deputy Mayor Jim Colver, assembly members are trying to address meth's spread in the Valley.

Mat-Su law enforcement officials almost weekly uncover a new laboratory used for making the illegal street drug.

Colver wants the borough to pass a pair of ordinances that would limit access to ephedrine or pseudoephedrine - the key ingredients needed to make methamphetamine, which are cooked down in various chemicals to produce meth.

He is buoyed by the apparent success of similar laws in Oklahoma that put tablet medicines such as Sudafed, Drixoral and Claritin-D behind the counter. Oklahoma officials credit the law with helping slash the number of meth labs by at least 70 percent.

The first of the ordinances will place before voters the question of granting the borough health powers to specifically limit the sale of ingredients used in the manufacturing of meth.

If voters approve the powers, then the second ordinance, if approved, would relegate the sale of over-the-counter products containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to a class of over-the-counter medications that must be dispensed behind the counter or in a locked case.

A common ingredient in cold medicine, ephedrine is available over the counter, and some local stores and pharmacies already have been keeping an eye on how much people are buying.

Individuals purchasing more than three packages of the medication will also be required to sign a registration log and show identification, before making a purchase.

During the last session, state Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, and Sen. Gretchen Guess, D-Anchorage, each proposed bills aimed at limiting the sale and possession of pseudoephedrine to 9 grams every 30 days.

House Bill 141 and Senate Bill 106 would also have required vendors to keep a log of all pseudoephedrine sales and report the information to the Department of Public Safety.

Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, backed yet another bill - House Bill 149, a "meth watch" bill that, like the other two bills, did not emerge from committee, reportedly because store owners balked at the customer-registration requirement.

"We cannot afford to sit back and rest," Colver said. "Residents of the Mat-Su Valley can't wait another year for the state to take action. We have a lot of people that are hurting from the abuse of these drugs, and we've got to make these easy-to-get ingredients more hard to get."

Law-enforcement agencies raided 37 clandestine methamphetamine labs last year, compared with 10 in 2003.

In some parts of the borough, the news of a busted drug lab arrives almost weekly, bringing with it an awareness of the painful social cost of drug abuse.

The chemicals from methamphetamines don't just have the potential to harm those living in the house, but anyone planning to enter it.

"If our emergency responders are unaware that they are going into a clandestine lab, it does put them at risk." said Dennis Brodigan, the borough's director of emergency services. "In fact, we've had at least one of those cases in the last four or five months."

After medical personnel or emergency responders transport someone injured in a drug lab, Brodigan said, the ambulance must be taken out of service and decontaminated.

"The toxic nature of the chemicals makes that a necessary procedure," Brodigan said. "Keeping the general public and emergency responders safe is our main concern."

Meth is a menace on its own, but its production creates its own set of serious and dangerous problems.

Cooking 1 pound of meth generates roughly 5 pounds of dangerous chemical byproducts. These byproducts are, in essence, hazardous waste.

Manufacturing of meth also contaminates houses and apartments, leaving them unsuitable for habitation. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation tracks home that are not "fit for use" after labs are busted by police. Currently, there are five locations in the Valley on the list.

People who cook meth often do not dispose of the byproducts legally. In fact, what they often do is take the byproducts to rural areas and simply dump them on other people's land.

Although state and local agencies can remove the hazardous items, it is the responsibility of the property owner to decontaminate the land. Sometimes the state can pick up the cost for such decontamination, but not always.

At one site in California last month, state contractors used a backhoe to remove 30,000 pounds of contaminated dirt, chemical-saturated cat litter as well as empty pill bottles and solvent cans.

The Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Team, which focuses on drug investigations throughout the Mat-Su, has shifted its primary enforcement duties from marijuana cultivation to the investigation of meth labs.

In May, the Mat-Su drug unit executed a search warrant on a suspected meth lab at the Gold Miner Hotel in downtown Palmer. The investigation started after a suspicious fire was discovered in a garbage truck belonging to the city of Palmer. It appeared that chemicals from a meth lab ignited the blaze. Further investigation led investigators to the hotel, where two suspects were caught manufacturing methamphetamine and arrested.

As drug officers across the Valley grapple with this problem, Colver believes his proposal is crucial in bringing control to the madness of the methamphetamine craze.

"It won't solve all our problems, but it could be a tiny step in the right direction," Colver said.

"It's taking one of their critical ingredients away from them. We have to cut this dangerous drug off at the source, and criminals can't make methamphetamine if they can't get enough of the key ingredient."

The two ordinances written by Colver are set for public hearing Aug. 2 at Assembly Chambers in Palmer.

Contact Darryl Breese at

352-2267 or darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.