Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2005
Source: Enid News & Eagle (OK)
Copyright: Enid News & Eagle 2005
Contact:  http://www.enidnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2012
Author: Cass Rains
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

ENID POLICE, DA'S OFFICE TO RECEIVE PORTION OF FUNDS FROM WALGREEN CO,
SETTLEMENT

Two agencies in Enid will share a portion of a $1.3 million settlement
reached with Walgreen Co. after investigations into negligent sales of
cold medication containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient for
making methamphetamine.

Garfield County District Attorney's Office and Enid Police Department
will share $333,333 of the settlement between multiple agencies and
Walgreen. The company also agreed to spend $1 million on a system to
monitor purchases of the medicine. As part of the settlement, Walgreen
did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.

The settlement ends a dispute between Walgreen and law enforcement
agencies over alleged violations of an Oklahoma law requiring
monitoring of sales of over-the-counter cold pills containing
pseudoephedrine and limiting the supply consumers may purchase to 9
grams in 30 days. Problems were discovered after an Enid Police
Department patrolman began using pharmacy logbooks for tracking cold
pill sales while investigating methamphetamine producers.

Officer Jason Priest used the logbooks, required by Oklahoma law to be
kept by pharmacies selling medications containing pseudoephedrine, as
part of an investigation into small rings of know meth producers. "I'm
proud," Priest said of the settlement. "There were a lot of the people
at the department that backed me on it."

Priest said there were some who questioned the effectiveness of using
logbooks for investigative purposes. But, he said, after working with
other agencies and making progress with his investigation, the proof
of effectiveness is in the results.

"This can be done. It works," he said. Robert McCampbell, U.S.
Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, said an investigation
by state and federal agencies showed "Walgreen was careless" in
selling the restricted substance.

After some of the cold medicine bearing the Walgreens label wound up
in a meth lab busted in Enid, officials with Oklahoma Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs said Enid's Walgreens pharmacy accounted
for 97 percent of the city's illegal pseudoephedrine sales.

Larry Derryberry, Oklahoma legal counsel for Walgreen, applauded the
work of Enid police but said the pharmacy was "victimized by the meth
cooks." Walgreens is the only 24-hour pharmacy in Enid and serves a
high volume of customers, Derryberry said.

Scott Rowland of Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
divided blame between clerks and management at the store. He said
store employees approached the law casually, but company policies were
not in line with the law's aim. "Because of the corporate misbehavior
of Walgreens, there were meth labs operated in the state of Oklahoma
with all of the accompanying carnage that otherwise wouldn't have
been," Rowland said.

Garfield County District Attorney Cathy Stocker gave credit for the
settlement to Priest.

"This settlement resulted, in very large part, from the investigative
efforts of Enid Police Department patrolman Jason Priest into the sale
of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine by local Enid
pharmacies to persons using them to help others manufacture
methamphetamine," Stocker said. Enid Police Chief Rick West agreed.

"We would concur with District Attorney Cathy Stocker's statement and
commend our department's initiative and actions," he said. According
to a press release from Stocker's office, based upon the investigation
of Enid pharmacies, her office has charged 42 defendants with numerous
felony drug offenses, the majority of which are directly related to
the purchase of pseudoephedrine products at Enid's Walgreens pharmacy.
Five of those charged have been convicted and sentenced to prison
terms, according to the release.

Stocker said The Trooper Nik Green, Rocky Eales and Matthew Evans Act,
or House Bill 2176, also allows district attorneys, the attorney
general and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs to file
civil lawsuits to recover damages from people or companies that sell
pseudoephedrine in a negligent manner.

The law states damages may be recovered for all costs of detecting,
investigating and cleaning up clandestine drug labs, as well as
prosecuting criminal cases resulting from methamphetamine
manufacturing, including consequential and punitive damages.

In light of the settlement, Stocker said no further action will be
pursued. A spokeswoman for Walgreen said the company is going to go
beyond what is required in the agreement.

"We have spent $1 million on an integrated pseudoephedrine monitoring
program," spokeswoman Tiffany Bruce said.

"There is little to be gained in litigating," Bruce said. "It is
better to use the money to fight meth.

"We are ready to move forward." West said employees at the Enid
pharmacy made changes in their operations before the settlement was
announced.

"They are working very diligently to correct it," he said. Bruce also
said Walgreen committed to employ an internal monitor of
pseudoephedrine purchases. The monitor would be a full-time employee
of Walgreens who would monitor compliance with Oklahoma's
pseudoephedrine law. Walgreen has 65 stores in Oklahoma.

"Our message today is simple: If you want to sell pseudoephedrine in
Oklahoma," McCampbell said, "you'd better follow every rule and
regulation there is, because all of us in law enforcement are focused
on meth." The $1.3 million settlement also will be shared with
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control and U.S.
Attorneys for Northern, Eastern and Western districts of Oklahoma, as
well as the Eastern District of Texas. Oklahoma's pseudoephedrine law,
passed in April 2004, made it a criminal offense to purchase more than
nine grams of pseudoephedrine in a 30 days of time. The law also made
it mandatory only pharmacies could sell tablets containing
pseudoephedrine, and then only after seeing identification and having
the purchaser sing a logbook.

CNHI Oklahoma report Luke Engan and The Associated Press contributed
to this story,
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin