Stores alerting police on purchases of cold medications

LONDON, Ky. — Detective Brian Lewis returns to his desk after lunch, scanning e-mails he missed.

One catches his eye: It says a suspected member of a methamphetamine ring bought a box of Sudafed at 1:34 p.m. at a CVS pharmacy.

Minutes later, Lewis is in his truck, circling the parking lot, searching for the woman.

Lewis did not find her that day, but the scenario illustrates the way law enforcement is increasingly relying on computerized tracking systems in its fight against meth, an illegal drug that is often brewed in makeshift labs and has become a particular scourge in Appalachia and the Midwest.

Tracking systems are gradually being installed in pharmacies nationwide in response to a federal law that, since March 2006, has regulated purchases of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the manufacture of meth. Pseudoephedrine is found in many over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines, such as Sudafed.

Under federal law, customers must show photo ID to buy pseudoephedrine, and the legal limit for purchases is 9 grams per month — roughly the equivalent of two 15-dose boxes of 24-hour Claritin D, or three 10-dose boxes of Aleve Cold & Sinus, or six 24-dose boxes of Sudafed.

Tracking systems like the one in use in Kentucky, MethCheck, automatically collect the buyer's name, address and age with a swipe of a driver's license or state-issued ID card.

Then the system notifies detectives via e-mail when a customer has exceeded the purchase limit. It also allows law enforcement to quickly spot suspicious patterns — for example, someone who might be trying to skirt the purchase limits by going from pharmacy to pharmacy and buying a few packages at a time.

An updated version of MethCheck eventually will enable law enforcement to track purchases by neighborhood or street. That could help detectives spot instances in which a meth chemist enlists others in the neighborhood to buy pseudoephedrine for him, Lewis said.

In addition, the system can flag purchases by people already under suspicion among law enforcement authorities.

Kentucky is the first state to use MethCheck; it has been testing it out in Laurel County since mid-2005. MethCheck will be used at some 7,000 pharmacies in 43 states by next year, said to Rick Jones, spokesman for Louisville-based Appriss Inc., which developed MethCheck.