Area police arrested seven Ellettsville residents in six separate meth lab busts over the last year. The statistic is just one of many that indicate the rise of methamphetamine in Indiana.
Between 2008 and 2009, there were six total meth lab seizures in Monroe County. In 2012 alone, there were 60 seizures. The county accounted for around half of the total seizures in what the Indiana State Police call the Bloomington District – Owen, Greene, Lawrence, Brown, Monroe and Morgan counties – for 2011 and 2012.
The rapid growth in methamphetamine production comes despite 2005 state legislation that restricted the sale of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, the precursors for meth production that are commonly found in cold medicine and diet pills.
According to the Indiana Code, people could buy no more than three grams of products containing the chemicals per week. The state law also made it a crime to possess more than 10 grams of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine at a time, particularly when armed with a firearm or within 1,000 feet of properties such as schools.
The federal government passed further restrictions as part of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2006. The law made it illegal to purchase more than nine grams of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine products over a 30-day period and required retailers to keep the products behind the counter.
Despite legislative efforts, meth lab seizures in Indiana have increased by 62% since 2005.
ISP Meth Suppression Commander Niki Crawford said there were several reasons for the increase.
“Good police work coming from local partnerships, additional resources and manpower being put toward the problem at the Bloomington Post, and more meth cooks and smurfs in our communities.”
Crawford defined “smurfs” as people who purchase pseudoephedrine and ephedrine products for meth cooks once the National Precursor Log Exchange prevents the cooks from buying the products for themselves.
Crawford was ambivalent about the sales tracking software.
“It tracks who is buying (pseudoephedrine and ephedrine) and blocks those who cannot legally purchase (the) products, which, in turn, causes more smurfs to purchase (them) for meth cooks. It is an investigative tool, not a preventive tool,” the commander explained.
As the number of meth lab seizures increases, so does the cost of cleaning them up. According to Crawford, processing a scene costs about $1,500 on average. Cleaning up a house costs about $11,000.
“There are many other costs such as placement of drug-endangered children, lost work production, educational costs, incarceration of meth defendants, cleaning up hotel rooms and apartments,” Crawford said.
She added that an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics study estimated the total cost of a single meth lab to a community as $350,000.
Given the high cost and specific skills required to clean up meth lab scenes, most local police forces are unable to do the work themselves.
“Since the early 1990s, the (ISP) has provided clandestine lab processing services to all police agencies in the state free of charge. (ISP) processes 97% of all labs in the state,” Crawford said.
Sergeant Russell Harris, spokesman for the Ellettsville Police Department, confirmed that was the case in Ellettsville.
“We work closely with (ISP) on meth labs as they have a special team just for that purpose,” he said.
In response to the rise in meth activity, Indiana lawmakers are again considering a bill that would restrict purchases of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine products. This time, the total annual amount allowed would be 61.2 grams or a maximum of 7.2 grams per month.
The bill proposed by state Sen. Carlin Yoder, of Middlebury, was recently passed by the Senate 44-4 and will continue to the Indiana House of Representatives for further review.
Other restrictions in the bill would require those convicted of methamphetamine-related crimes to have a prescription for drugs containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine as needed for a period of seven years.
It also increases penalties on those who knowingly sell the products to those intending to make methamphetamine, and reclassifies fires started as a result of cooking meth from accidental to arson.
In a Feb. 11 article, the Indianapolis Star quoted Yoder in saying, “This legislation limits access to ephedrine products for people convicted of meth-related crimes without increasing the burden on Hoosier families who need these products for legitimate medical reasons.”
Lawmakers describe the maximum purchase limit as equivalent to a daily dose every day for eight months.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.