Pubdate: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 Source: Tribune Star (Terre Haute, IN) Section: Flashpoint Copyright: 2010 Tribune-Star Publishing Co. Inc. Contact: http://www.tribstar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/448 Note: OPED signed by several local LE officials CORPORATE RETAILERS CHOSE NOT TO HELP METH The only difficult thing about responding to John Elliott and Grant Monahan's statements in the July 3 edition of the Tribune-Star is deciding where to begin. None of the assertions are accurate, and none of the claims are based upon the realities we're facing here in Vigo County. The logical thing to do is to refute this misinformation in the same order it appeared in reporter Lisa Trigg's news article. The notion that over-the counter PSE sales are done in the name of "patient care" sounds very nice. Especially when the legitimate consumer has been led to believe that prescription-only sales will force them into a co-pay every single time they need relief from nasal congestion. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have been speaking with several doctors in the Wabash Valley since beginning the push for prescription-only. When asked about the proposed change, the majority of doctor responses have been in two categories. Many of them have told us that, for an existing patient with a legitimate need for PSE products, a prescription would be called in without an office visit. Other doctors have said that before calling in such prescriptions, they would want to see their patients once a year. Many doctors feel that patients should be seen once a year, and there is abundant research proving that annual doctor visits keep the costs of health care lower by diagnosing potentially serious and long-term illnesses before they progress too far. We are not without compassion for those who are uninsured, but as anyone current on national news knows, soon everyone will have health insurance. In light of this firsthand information, we would respectfully suggest that which seems obvious: Perhaps matters of "patient care" are better left to the doctors in our community, and not to the retailers and their lobbyists. Suggesting that electronic tracking of PSE purchases will be any more effective than the tracking that is already in place is, quite simply, false. Electronic tracking is nothing more than a faster version of a system that doesn't work. Tracking is reactive, and amounts to nothing more than a record of crimes that have already happened. Here in Indiana, tracking PSE lowered meth lab numbers for a few months, but then those numbers went even higher. The same pattern has occurred in every other state that has implemented tracking. There is some initial success, but then it does not work. Period. What does work is the proactive system that has resulted in a reduction of greater than 90 percent of meth lab seizures in Oregon, where prescription-only for PSE products has been a state law since 2007. Those results have been both significant and long-lasting, leading to a substantial decrease in all crimes, statewide. Just a few days ago, Mississippi decided to imitate Oregon's success by placing prescription-only requirements on PSE sales in their state. There is little doubt that they will see results similar to Oregon's. Labs will greatly decrease, hundreds of lives will be saved, and the whole state will win. We need a win like that here in the Hoosier state. Ironically, seven years ago, when we were trying to make PSE tracking a state law, Mr. Monahan fought us at every turn, trying to keep PSE products out from behind the pharmacy counter, and flowing from the store as quickly as merchants could sell them. Now he's put a few bells and whistles on the same tracking he once fought against, and has the audacity to suggest that it would solve our current problems. Mr. Monahan's hypocrisy comes to us all the way from Indianapolis. He is not a resident of Vigo County. If he were, he couldn't say such things with a straight face. If using electronic tracking will make the jobs of the already-overburdened pharmacists and pharmacy technicians any easier, then use it. But don't pretend that it will do anything to slow our terrible meth epidemic, because that isn't true. Likewise, it is inaccurate to imply that those of us promoting this change don't understand all of the implications accompanying the prescription-only concept. (And suggesting that such a measure would create "customer confusion" bespeaks a rather low opinion of consumers here in the Wabash Valley.) Those of us involved in this movement have been working directly with pharmacists, doctors, prosecutors, judges and legislators for several years. This was a straightforward and sincere request that was made in an effort to save the lives of our citizens and children. So far, eight area pharmacies have agreed to cooperate, for the good of the community. In doing so, they have decided not to make some of the easy money they could be making by selling a lot of PSE products to anyone and everyone who asks for them. No one in those pharmacies is confused, and neither are their loyal customers. Mr. Monahan should give our community a little more credit. In our meeting with retailers and pharmacists back on May 20, we identified what we believe to be a legitimate danger to pharmacy employees and customers that is created by the illicit PSE "smurfing" and "gigging" that we have observed, and which many pharmacy employees have reported to us. Obviously, the corporate pharmacies have chosen not to remedy this situation by implementing the change we have suggested. But it is our hope that they will do something to limit those dangerous situations. No pharmacy employee deserves to be threatened or intimidated. In the meantime, the implication that any of our remarks were directed toward our local pharmacists or pharmacy technicians is ludicrous. Everyone we have ever worked with, on the local level, has been supportive of this idea because of how dangerous things have become. As we've said, time and again, the breakdown occurs when PSE sales policies are made in corporate offices hundreds of miles away. Those who don't live and work in Vigo County have no reason to care about our problems. This much they have proven by refusing to help. Since we're responding to the retail perspective, let's talk more about something that retailers love. Money. During 2009 the state of Indiana spent over $2 BILLION on our methamphetamine problem. Costs for incarceration, inmate health care, meth lab cleanup, law enforcement overtime, social services, foster care, and several other meth-related expenses have been draining our budgets at a time when schools, police, fire and all other public service offices have had to reduce personnel. This burden has been placed directly on the shoulders of the taxpayer. When a meth cooker gets severely burned, and subsequently airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital for months of medical treatment, how high is the bill? Who pays it? When the organs of a methamphetamine addict, or those of a recovering addict, begin to falter, who pays those medical bills? In our jail we've seen annual health care costs jump from $100,000 to half-a-million dollars in the 10 years since the meth labs got here. This trend is occurring throughout the state, and it is not merely limited to our jail populations. In light of all the death and damage this little pill is causing, how could anyone claim that keeping this nasal-decongestant -- just one of dozens of possible remedies that are available, by the way -- over-the-counter would benefit long-term health care costs? It hasn't done anything but cause those costs to skyrocket. What else would you expect from a drug that causes addicts to put drain cleaner, anhydrous ammonia, starting fluid and battery scrapings into their bodies? Meth kills the people who use it, but not before they harm everyone and everything around them. Before labs got here, we did not have so many people dying or getting hurt in explosions and fires, we didn't average 10 babies a month born with methamphetamine in their systems, criminals were not shooting at our police officers nearly as often, we didn't have people killing their own children, and our crime rate was not nearly as high as it is now. These meth labs are killing our citizens by the hundreds, ruining the lives of countless children, crippling our health care budgets and forcing more burdens on our public agencies and tax dollars than most people realize. We asked for your help in this matter, and you declined. It is our hope that the thousands of people in our community who have suffered through this epidemic -- whether they've had a lab in their neighborhood, been the victims of metal theft or violent crime, or lost a friend or loved one to meth addiction -- will recognize which businesses are willing to help with this problem, and which ones are not. Retailers and drug companies are making millions of dollars on illicit PSE sales every year. We'll let the public decide whether this is "corporate greed" or not. In the meantime, don't ask for an apology. You are the ones who should apologize. - -- Capt. Joseph Brentlinger Terre Haute Police Department - -- Sgt. Matt Carden Vigo County Drug Task Force - -- Chief Marc Eldred Terre Haute Police Department - -- Chief Deputy Greg Ewing Vigo Sheriff's Department - -- Sgt. Chris Gallagher Terre Haute Police Department - -- Assistant Chief Carl Green Terre Haute Police Department - -- Assistant Chief Shawn Keen Terre Haute Police Department - -- Jon Marvel Vigo County Sheriff - -- Terry Modesitt Vigo County Prosecutor - -- Rob Roberts Vigo County Chief Deputy Prosecutor - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D