Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 2004
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2004 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Michael Baker, The Oklahoman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

STATE'S COLD TABLET LAW FORCING OUT METH LABS

An Enid man received nearly four years in federal prison Friday for
smuggling pseudoephedrine into Oklahoma, a crime authorities say
desperate methamphetamine users are committing increasingly. A new
Oklahoma law removed cold tablets containing pseudoephedrine from
store shelves. The law has shut down hundreds of methamphetamine lab
cooks and driven those left to search out of state for their key
ingredient, authorities say.

"It's going to force them to go to other states or quit," said Mark
Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs.

Some take the first option.

The 1,100 tablets that Terry Manning Gamble, 23, had in his car when
stopped in Alfalfa County as he returned from Kansas on May 11 never
made it to a clandestine lab.

Instead, Gamble was sentenced Friday to three years and 10 months in
prison by U.S. District Judge Ralph G. Thompson.

The 28 grams of pseudoephedrine and the 9,000 more tablets four people
were arrested for trying to buy and smuggle from Harper County, Kan.,
back into Oklahoma on May 24 never made it to a lab.

Instead, Enid-area residents Jonie Stuart Ehrman, 49, Brooke E.
Thomas, 26, David Paul Tirado, 40, and Robert Lee Elson, 51, pleaded
guilty earlier this week to possessing pseudoephedrine with the intent
to make methamphetamine. All four face 10 years in prison at a hearing
after the presentence report is prepared.

Oklahoma's pseudoephedrine control act was enacted April 6.

"We started seeing an increase in pill cases in May," Wichita, Kan.,
police Lt. Alan Prince said.

Numbers skyrocket Since the law went into effect, 74 felony arrests
have resulted from cases where Oklahomans have crossed into Kansas to
buy large quantities of pseudoephedrine in Wichita, Prince said.
Before the law, maybe four or five cases a year in Wichita involved
Oklahomans.

Such arrest figures have neighboring states looking to copy the
Oklahoma law, which banned the sale of pseudoephedrine tablets in
Oklahoma stores without a licensed pharmacist.

Hearing of Oklahoma's success in shutting down methamphetamine labs,
28 states have contacted Oklahoma authorities about passing similar
laws, Woodward said.

Before the law, Oklahoma City police seized about 14.5 labs a month.
Now, Oklahoma City police have seized 5.3 labs a month. Tulsa went
from 17.5 labs before, to 8.4 labs after.
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MAP posted-by: Derek