Adam Huening
Greensburg Daily News
Greensburg —
Battling meth and its production has been a priority of law enforcers and legislators for more than a decade. In another step in the war, the Indiana State Police is tightening the rope around those wishing to manufacture the nefarious drug.
Recently, the ISP launched the new Indiana Methamphetamine Investigation System (IMIS). Created by the Tennessee Meth Task Force, the system comes at no cost to the agencies that request it or the pharmacies that can use it. According to ISP Sgt. Noel Houze, the system collects "sales data, federal clan lab seizure forms, community tips, law enforcement tips and a variety of other investigative leads" in order to better track meth cooks and smurf groups. Houze said smurf groups are "a person or group of people who go from store to store to store purchasing the maximum amount of (pseudophedrine) allowable in a single sale."
One of the state's largest steps toward cracking down on the manufacture of meth came with Senate Act 444, which put a limit on the amount of pseudophedrine or cold medicine one could buy in a certain time period. Once over the counter medicine to offer relief from the common cold, pseudophedrine was put behind a locked case, behind the counter or in a location with constant video surveillance because it is a main ingredient in meth. Those who buy the medicine must show identification and sign a log book. House Enrolled Act 1320 updated the law in July, limiting the amount purchased in a day to 3.6 grams (one box) or 9 grams per month.
The idea, Houze explained, was to keep tabs on cooks and smurf groups that would go pharmacy to pharmacy in one day to purchase pseudophedrine. A number of warrants have been issued and arrests made because of these laws and log books, however, Houze noted there were inherent problems in the law.
"Experience revealed that the paper logs were cumbersome and time consuming to track meth cooks and discern smurf groups," Houze said.
Smurfs often use fake IDs and meth cooks hire homeless people or those in need of money or meth to purchase the pseudophedrine, he noted. While it is not illegal to purchase one box, the combination of purchases from several locations in one day is a violation. The new system will allow police to track those making rounds with pharmacies almost instantaneously.
Houze said the ISP hopes the system will help fight the war on meth more effectively.
"No tracking system is able to prevent meth labs. Our expectation is that we will actually seize more labs that exist in our communities because we are placing comprehensive meth investigative leads in the hands of law enforcement," Houze said. "Law enforcement will have access to the tools in IMIS to efficiently track these violations and provide criminal investigative follow-up through all means available."
While meth cooks and smurf groups have seemingly worked loopholes within the law and avoided prosecution in some case, the ISP believes the new system will give law enforcement the ability to take down those who have so far eluded them. Above all, Houze hopes the new system sends a message.
"Meth cooks in our communities need to know law enforcement will be targeting them, and now have an excellent tool to make police officers much more efficient and focused in providing intelligence-led policing in communities all over Indiana," Houze said. "We will not be creating a safe haven for smurfs by notifying them of their purchase limits and allowing them to fall within the legal limits while recruiting other criminals and citizens to provide (pseudophedrine) products to cooks manufacturing this highly addictive, dangerous, and destructive drug."
