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Last updated 8:51 am CT February 09, 2010.
Pilot Program Cracks Down On Meth Labs
As several pharmacies start a pilot program that will closely monitor the sale of the product, in order to crack down on meth manufacturing.
"We don't stock a whole lot of the main pseudofed products and we're very careful on selling it."
Popular prescriptions such as Zyrtec, Mucinex, Clairitin D and even Advil all contain pseudophedrine- the main ingredient in making methamphetamine.
But now a lot of these over the counter drugs are kept behind the counter so that suspicious customers can't easily obtain it.
"If we see someone that's from out of state or something coming around, we kind of notify the other pharmacies in town to watch you know if someone's coming around."
But now thanks to a pilot program enforced by the Illinois Meth precursor control authority-
Pharmacies in Jackson, Union, Johnson, Williamson, Saline, and Franklin counties will submit all pseudoephedrine purchases into an online database.
"All the information from these pseudofed purchases will go into one large server and in that server, in that information box, they'll be a program that chooses suspicious activity."
Investigator JR Moore says in the past he would have to go from pharmacy to pharmacy in Franklin county to look over their logs to look at every pseduofed purchase...
But this program has made it much easier to track.
"I'll be able to set at my computer in my office and get all the information from all the pharmacies in Franklin County without even leaving my desk."
Moore says that the database will be constantly checked on a daily basis-
Which he thinks will bring out a lot of drug dealers very quickly.
"I think there will be a spike, and I think we'll see meth labs, meth arrests, telephone calls, compaints, all of that go down, and hopefully...hopefully it stays down."
By Andy Waterman
awaterman@wsiltv.com
Now: 1265729700
