Published: April 23, 2008 10:25 pm         

Vigo meth ordinance runs into problems with state law

TERRE HAUTE — Vigo County law enforcement officers will no longer issue tickets against retailers because a county ordinance aimed at ingredients used to make methamphetamine cannot supersede state law, County Attorney Robert Wright said.

In addition, the county has received a cut in grant funds that helped pay for a computer analysis of required documents from retailers showing who is buying ephedrine products. The result is the county will no longer consistently track that data, said Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel.

Vigo’s 2004 ordinance targets ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, ephedrine hydrochloride, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, pseudoephedrine sulfate and phenylpropanolamine, substances used to make meth.

Vigo County is the only Indiana county with such a local ordinance because it was passed before a state law took effect in 2005.

However, some officials last week voiced concern that the county ordinance has a loophole, as it does not hold sellers responsible.

The ordinance restricts buyers from purchasing more than two packages in seven days; however, buyers have been violating that provision. The county ordinance limits sellers to no more than two packages to a customer, but has no provision for the seller to limit that number in a seven-day period.

State law also has that loophole, Wright said.

“The existing ordinance that we have is a good law,” Wright told the county Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. “The one thing that creates a problem for Vigo County to amend their existing law is that that state law reads that a governmental unit may not adopt an ordinance after Feb. 1, 2005, that is more stringent than” state law.

“It is my opinion we can’t change our ordinance because it is after Feb. 1, 2005. The state ordinance does not cover this situation and we can’t create a new one to address that. It is obvious to me that one of the things the Legislature was trying to do was not make the cashier the bad person,” Wright said.

“If [the cashier] made a mistake on selling, they didn’t want them to suffer the consequences of it. They wanted the person who was buying to be the bad person,” Wright said.

Wright said county officials would have to seek an amendment in state law.

As far as tracking the computer analyzed data on buyers, Marvel said the data sheets are still being collected, but the information “is worthless.”

“We don’t have time, the [Vigo County] Drug Task Force does not have the time, to go through hundreds, literally several hundreds of these data sheets each month to see who bought packages [of ephedrine]. It is an impossible task for one person to do that,” Marvel said.

“But I am not going to sit down and throw up my hands and say there is nothing we can do. I will go back to the [Indiana] Legislature and ask for help. The good guys are still going to win this” fight against illegal methamphetamine labs, the sheriff said.

The Vigo County Drug Task Force, the sheriff said, knows who is buying the ingredients “and has ways to keep our eyes on them. The law is still in effect.”

Marvel said his department paid about $2,000 a month to Joink Inc. to collect the retail sheets and analyze that data, with part of that funding coming from a grant to the Drug Task Force.

“The grant funding was cut earlier this year, but I just recently disbanded [the data analysis]. I tried to find other money in my budget, but couldn’t fund that any longer,” Marvel said.

Marvel said the data still can be used to “double-check what informants say, but unlike in the past, we will not have a computer analysis saying ‘this person bought 100 packages a month.’”

Money for the analysis was paid in part through the county’s Drug Task Force, which received an Edward Bryne Memorial Discretionary grant. The Drug Task Force in 2006 had $153,303 in Bryne grant funds. In 2007, that grant was $95,476. So far in 2008, the county has received $20,000, according to county records.

Joink received $10,633, most of it paid in 2007, county records show.

The Drug Task Force still has more than $95,600 in funding and more than $127,800 in a seized asset fund, county records show, but Marvel said much of that is committed to other items.



Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

     

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