Government Technology - December 2008 - (Page 45)

U.S. Meth Boom Cools The global increase in manufacturiing amphetamine-type substances (ATS) observed during the ’90s might have leveled off, according to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. U.S. meth production has declined signiﬁcantly since 2004, said the bureau’s 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. But drug markets in Mexico and Asia are taking up the slack in U.S. production — keeping usage numbers static. The report said central and northern Europe, and southeast Asia, still have worrisome numbers. The report suggests ATS remain popular due to their low manufacturing cost and high proﬁt margin. There’s good news, however. Despite increased meth production in Mexico, the Mexican government announced that by 2009 all meth precursors and products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine will become illegal. The passage of the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 has largely outlawed the sale and possession of ephedrine in the U.S.. cies to reduce and ultimately eliminate meth manufacturing. According to Bill Clinton, operations administrator at ACIC, the legislation plugged the loophole that existed in the prior method of tracking sales of the meth precursors. “Prior to [Act 508], Arkansas had instituted regulations that required the pharmacies to keep a manual, paper log of their sales of pseudoephedrine,” Clinton said. “It didn’t take the folks who were cooking meth very long to figure out the drugstores weren’t communicating with each other. They could go to ‘Drugstore A’ and buy their limit, and then go to the next drugstore and buy their limit — and continue on down the line. It was apparent there was a need for a real-time log all the pharmacies would be connected to so that information could be shared.” ACIC issued an RFP for the electronic logbook and eventually selected Dallas-based LeadsOnlabs. One challenge, however, was getting small, local pharmacies on par with large, national chains. Small pharmacies don’t always have the IT infrastructure to track and report the sale of meth precursors. LeadsOnlabs’ solution was to create two different systems that work independently toward the same result. “There are two scenarios,” Clinton explained. “For the larger chain pharmacies, many of them were already collecting this information, so LeadsOnlabs provided them interface specifications and they just submit their information from their systems to LeadsOnlabs. For the smaller pharmacies, there’s a Web portal they can access and enter the information into that.” For example, when a shopper at an independently owned pharmacy wants to buy a product containing a meth precursor, the pharmacist first asks for the person’s driver’s license. Arkansas drivers’ licenses feature a bar code that the pharmacist scans. The scan pulls all license data, and the pharmacist then enters it into the Web portal. At a larger chain pharmacy, manually entering license data isn’t required. In both instances, the data is sent to a LeadsOnlabs database where it’s crosschecked to determine whether the customer is eligible to purchase any of the products. Arkansas law limits an individual to 9 grams or 300 tablets of pseudoephedrine per month. According to a number of easily discovered meth recipes found on the Web, a typical batch of meth requires approximately 22 pounds of pseudoephedrine. Take Public CIO Magazine’s Testing Positive As the war on drugs has repeatedly proven, no amount of money or enforcement stops people from manufacturing, selling and abusing drugs. But tools like electronic logbooks make an impact. Both the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the NCJRS report a steady decline in meth abuse, and the NCJRS credits programs such as electronic logbooks as a critical driver of the reduction. DEA numbers also suggest that over the past few years the number of meth lab incidents, such as law enforcement seizures, has diminished — from 714 in Arkansas in 2004 to 240 in 2007. “I think we’re already seeing a reduction in the number of meth labs across the state, and we know people aren’t able to buy [the ingredients] like they could,” Clinton said. Security Management Survey AND RECEIVE COMPLIMENTARY ACCESS TO THIS INDEPENDENT REPORT: CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT: I AM WHO I SAY I AM: THE ROLE OF IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT IN GOVERNMENT To participate go to: www.public-cio.com/securitysurvey 45 http://www.public-cio.com/securitysurvey http://www.public-cio.com/securitysurvey http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - December 2008

Government Technology - December 2008 Contents Point of View Four Questions for... On the Scene Big Picture Year in Review Who Controls Your Network? Paper Makes a Comeback Halting Meth Abuse Spectrum Up Close signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Becoming a Digital Community Rethinking 700 MHz Smart Grids: Powering the Future Gearing Up for Crime 2.0 Software Predicts Crime Local Portals on the Red Carpet More Than Just a Pretty Face

Government Technology - December 2008

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