LAW MAY BE PUTTING DENT IN INDIANA METH LABS

Between July and October, the number of methamphetamine labs seized
in Indiana fell 27 percent compared with the same time period last
year, Indiana State Police say.

Part of the decrease can be attributed to a law that took effect in
July, which restricts the sale of products containing
pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to make meth, police say. The law
requires customers purchasing the drug to show identification and
sign a log. State police are supposed to monitor the log to track
people who buy pseudoephedrine from several different retailers. But
without a central database that allows the pharmacies and police to
share information, finding trends can be tough, said detective Tony
Johnson of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force. The
number of meth labs seized in Vanderburgh County has decreased, but
the number of meth-related cases has stayed about the same because of
the influx of crystal meth, Johnson said.

The task force hasn't made any arrests using information from the
log, but they are working on a case and expect to issue warrants
soon. "We'll see how it works," he said.

The state police are seeking grant money to support a central
database. West Virginia and Oklahoma will soon convert to an
electronic log that connects the states' retailers, said Steven King,
Drug and Crime Control Division director for the Indiana Criminal
Justice Institute in Indianapolis. Indiana has more than 10,000
retail stores, and creating a database that would link them all
together would take some time, said Indiana State Police spokesman
Sgt. Todd Ringle. "It is going to be a difficult task, but that is
something that we're working on," he said.

The state police are required to report the effectiveness of the
pseudoephedrine law to the Legislature in 2007. King said the law is
already making a difference and has led to several arrests at the
state and local level, he said. Some of the retailers who have
received training and know what to look for have called police after
a suspicious transaction, King said. "That's the big part of it -
just not getting the information but actually doing something with it
when you get it."