Meth Epidemic: OK towns taking action

Good old Oklahoma, the sunshine, the beautiful flowers and trees and the allergies.

"I get a runny nose. I get a stuffed up nose. A lot of times, it will actually go into my chest," said Jon Morton, an allergy sufferer.

So to help, Jon does what many do. He gets medicine over the counter.  But the main ingredient that fights allergies, Psuedoephedrine, is the main ingredient in meth.

It's why you can only buy so many boxes of medicine containing Psuedoephedrine a month.

But that's still not stopping meth makers from getting it. Just ask the Holdenville police chief.

"People will come in and bring several people with them and each buy a single box, which is, they call it smurfing, and then they'll take that box and they'll take it to the meth cook and triple their money off what they paid for it," said Holdenville Police Chief Keith Wardlow.

Plus, Chief Wardlow says meth addiction leads to other crimes.

"We've seen an increase in cooper thefts, scrap metal thefts. People are just taking stuff from farms and stuff like that, equipment, selling it as scrap metal," said Wardlow.

He says then they're using that money to buy meth. So city leaders in Holdenville recently took action, making tablet Psuedoephedrine prescription-only.

Steve Summers, a Holdenville pharmacist, thinks it's a good idea, but says since the law has gone into effect he's noticed more people asking for Psuedoephedrine products.

"I think a lot of people, they got it at Wal-Mart here in town and since Wal-Mart's abiding by the law too, they just thought well, we'll just come down here and get it from these guys, and they couldn't get it here either so I guess they're having to go out of town. I've heard people say, 'Let's go over to Seminole and get it,'" said Summers.

Seminole is just 20 miles north and the police chief has concerns that people are driving to his town to get the goods.

"It is a concern. We are currently looking at Holdenville's policy," said Shane Marshall, the Seminole Police Chief.

McAlester, Wagoner and Chouteau have all passed similar laws.

Still, as an allergy sufferer, Jon doesn't think he should have go through a bigger hassle to get his allergy medicine, especially if people can just go to the next town to buy Psuedoephedrine.

"Me being a law-abiding citizen I've already given up the fact that I'll give up my driver's license, my Social Security number to buy a box of Advil. I should not have to go to my doctor just to get a script," said Morton.

But Jon says he'd be okay with going to the trouble if prescription-only Psuedoephedrine medicine became a state law, not just a city ordinance.

Only two states have taken it that far. Oregon and Mississippi both require prescriptions for Pseudoephedrine.

The law's been in place for five years in Oregon and the state officials report a 96% decrease in meth labs. Meanwhile, Mississippi made it a law last year and state leaders say they've seen a 66% decrease.

So far, Oklahoma hasn't been able to pass such a law on a statewide level. However, the Oklahoma House will have an interim study to look at making Psuedoephedrine prescription-only.

Wardlow feels his community is doing what it can and says if all Oklahoma cities take action, then the meth cooks will have a harder time getting Pseudoephedrine.

"We're hoping that the surrounding towns will follow suit," he said.

Oregon and Mississippi state officials did tell us that Psuedoephedrine sales went up in surrounding states when they passed their Psuedoephedrine laws. Missouri has looked at it, but like Oklahoma, it hasn't passed there on a statewide level.

Congressman John Sullivan says there has been some discussion on a federal level, but no action's been taken.