PERRYVILLE, MO (KFVS) -
In order to battle the manufacture of methamphetamine, our region's waging a war against pseudoephedrine, tracking you when you buy it or making you get a prescription first.
The head of the SEMO Drug Task Force says targeting pseudo is working. But, it's also creating a new problem that still hits close to home.
"We've had 17 transactions today so far," said one of the Perryville officers running that city's final pseudo sting back on March 30.
Two days before Perryville's pseudoephedrine prescription ordinance took effect, officers secretly tracked pill purchases, looking for a pattern that could indicate the pills were being bought to make meth.
The officer on a laptop computer set up at a local motel lists the out of town buyers he sees from Greenville, Parma, and Jackson.
"We knew for a fact that it was going to happen," said Sgt Kevin Glaser with the SEMO Drug Task Force. Officers like Glaser have chased alleged pill buyers, called smurfers, along the path created by each city ordinance since Poplar Bluff took action in December '09.
"Do you feel the city ordinances are working, are having an effect," I asked?"
"Yeah, I do," responded Glaser.
Glaser points to statewide numbers to prove his point. Missouri saw an 18-percent-increase in meth incidents from the first three months of 2010 to the first three months of 2011. Southeast Missouri's numbers stayed the same.
"There's not very many other explanations that would account for us at least staying level," said Glaser.
And, Glaser points to falling numbers in key counties, like Cape Girardeau, which went from 25 incidents down to 16 in that same time period.
"That's a lot of labs we don't have to mess with," said Glaser.
"This wasn't something we wanted to do," Perryville Police Chief Keith Tarrillion said of the pseudo-ordinance that took effect in his city April 1.
Tarrillion says they felt forced to enact it because cities around them did. But the chief now calls it a good move, one that's put an end to these time-consuming stings and led to a drop in retail thefts.
"We know by passing this we're pushing the problem off on someone else which is unfair," Tarrillion admitted. "But we need to do everything we can to protect our community."
Sgt. Glaser agrees saying smurfers, "are traveling greater distances to try and get their pills."
Over in Murphysboro, IL a sheriff's department analyst tracks pseudo purchases across the region.
"And if she checks within a few minutes on that date," Detective Mike O'Leary explained. "And three different people from Southeast Missouri say Charleston purchase pseudoephedrine. That's a pretty clear indicator that they're probably out smurfing."
Sheriff Robert Burns says they began seeing an increase in southeast Mo. buyers earlier this year. He calls it "displacing" the problem.
"You're really not curtailing the entire production of methamphetamine," said the Sheriff.
But, back in Sikeston, Sgt Kevin Glaser says any decrease in the increasingly smaller and more dangerous labs is another small victory.
"And that's our effort, to get it down to where we're only dealing with 100 labs statewide versus 2000 labs," said Glaser.
Sgt. Glaser worked hard toward a statewide pseudo prescription ban in Missouri, but that effort got off track.
He plans to bring it back up during the next legislative session.
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The head of the SEMO Drug Task Force says targeting pseudo is working.
Two days before Perryville's pseudoephedrine prescription ordinance took effect, officers secretly tracked pill purchases.
Sgt. Glaser agrees saying smurfers, "are traveling greater distances to try and get their pills."
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