Meth rule tightens Oklahoma drug sales
BY SHEILA STOGSDILL
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Published: November 4, 2009
Oklahomans who buy pseudoephedrine must now provide their birthdates, in keeping with a state law that took effect Sunday.
Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient for manufacturing methamphetamine, and the new law is one more tool aimed at fighting the state’s meth problem, according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. "OBN is constantly in search of ways to make our processes more effective, and we are very pleased that legislation was passed that will assist us in our battle against methamphetamine manufacturers with very limited intrusion to the general public,” said Darrell Weaver, OBN director. Sunday, the Bureau of Narcotics completed the pseudoephedrine tracking upgrades with the requirement that pharmacies enter customer birthdates into the tracking system, said bureau spokesman Mark Woodward. The bureau and the Department of Public Safety joined to implement a data-sharing pseudoephedrine tracking program that rejects sales from customers who use identification cards not in the state system, Woodward said. Out-of-state drivers’ licenses or identification cards will not work in the system, he said. Many methamphetamine cooks use fake or altered identification cards to buy pseudoephedrine, Woodward said. "By supplying birthdates to pharmacists, this will keep people from using multiple identification cards,” Woodward said. "This will narrow down the purchase to nine grams (of pseudoephedrine) per card per person, which was the way the law was written.” The law allows the purchase of nine grams of pseudoephedrine every 30 days and no more than 3.2 grams of pseudoephedrine in a single transaction.
About the law
Since 2004, customers have been required to show identification to pharmacists that display their name and identification number as issued by the state.
In July 2006, Oklahoma became the first state to track pseudoephedrine sales electronically, Woodward said.
Woodward said a new feature in the tracking system allows access by all law enforcement officers.
"Direct access will speed up the process of tracking, investigating and prosecuting those obtaining pseudoephedrine to manufacture methamphetamine,” Woodward said.
While state methamphetamine labs have declined by more than 90 percent in the past several years, Woodward said, some areas of Oklahoma are seeing an increase in shake-and-bake or one-pot meth labs.
Those labs use smaller quantities of pseudoephedrine.
Related Topics:
Methamphetamine, Psychoactive Drugs
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