Rochester, Indiana
Methamphetamine (Meth) shatters the lives of everything it touches; the addict, meth cook, and the children living in the homes where this is made. Eighty percent of children in the state of Indiana in protective services such as foster care are there because a parent or parents is involved with meth. It's alarming to know Indiana has the highest incidences of meth labs in the U.S. In this small town 32 labs were found in 2013 and it has cost the tax payers at least $40,000 to clean up each of these sites and that is just the beginning. Some citizens of Fulton County in Rochester Indiana had seen enough and decided to take action.
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| Pharmacists and legislators join together implement a bill to reduce meth labs in Indiana |
Click Here for the bill signing video of Governor Pence's visit to Webb's Family Pharmacy
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| My brother introducing Governor Pence |
A concerned citizen in Rochester (population 6100) named Val Pemberton approached my brother Harry, a local pharmacy owner, about a year ago. He asked him to do something about it NOW! My brother was well aware how Sudafed was being used as one of the key components in the manufacture of meth and was careful about the sales of this product. Unfortunately, the other pharmacies in this town were not. Something needed to be done to have all pharmacies unite to stop the sale of Sudafed to smurfs. Val was sure my brother could figure out a way to make this happen.
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| The concerned citizen who started the process - Val Pemberton |
Smurfs are people who are hired by meth cookers to obtain Sudafed at pharmacies. It is one of the key ingredients needed to make a batch. The sales are tracked in a federal database, however, this was not deterring the sales very much. Once a smurf was able to purchase some of this product, news would quickly be passed onto others. My brother said a pharmacy could then expect a steady stream of smurfs purchasing it until the supply ran out. In Rochester it was not unusual in the past to see monthly sales of 700 boxes. My brothers pharmacy only sold 15 of them. Think about this for a moment - pharmacies were profiting off the backs of their citizens. Shame on them. It is thought that only about 20% these sales were being used for legitimate purposes such has a sinus headaches or colds.
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| Media |
A Fulton County Citizen Action Committee was formed and with a lot of persistence an ordinance was passed in Fulton County to restrict sales of Sudafed to smurfs. This initiative successfully reduced the sales by 50%. With these promising statistics of how it could work the committee approached Randy Head an Indiana Senator. They gained his key support for a bill modeling what was being done in Rochester. My brother and others testified in the House and Senate and it later was passed and became a law in Indiana. There certainly was a lot of resistance from drug companies and chain stores. But the "good guys" won and it will be implemented in July 2016. Amazing!
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| Governor Pence signing the bill |
Yesterday Governor Pence came to my brothers pharmacy and ceremoniously signed the bill. There was lots of excitement in the air with legislators, committee members, pharmacists, media, police, and towns people present. It was a really great accomplishment for this small town to have made such a difference and everyone was so elated the bill had became a law..This little town had helped draft a bill which will hopefully curb a big problem. Words cannot express adequately how proud I am of my brother! It's been quite a journey.
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| Fulton County Citizen Action Committee |
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| Senator Randy Head and Representative Ben Smaltz received special recognition from the Fulton County Action Committee |
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| Local elected officials and the Governor Pence |
John and I have been following this effort almost from the beginning. We came here today to be a part of something really special. It was a great moment! Congratulations to all on a job well done and for stepping up and making a difference.
If you are interested in this process and the action plan click
here Feel free to share with your legislators and pharmacies.
Good job. I do understand the reason for stopping the bad guys, and am so glad the good guys won. I also am frustrated that I no longer can find a decent cold pill with sudafed in it. It was good stuff before the bad guys took over. Sigh. Meth is such a problem all over small town America, and when they can't get Sudafed, they seem to find other ways to manufacture the stuff. So incredibly sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue. With this bill you can easily obtain Sudafed if you are a previous customer...no RX required. Or you can obtain a small amount after talking briefly to the pharmacist.
DeleteThose are the kind of stories that you like to hear about. There are a lot of small towns that need help. The destruction caused by meth is so sad, especially for the children.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The statistic about the children was explained to me by the sherriff. It took my breath away.
DeleteHow absolutely wonderful!! You have good reason to be proud. So glad you could be there. I am appalled that drug companies would be so greedy as to oppose such an effort to help solve this terrible problem. Wish we could permanently boycott them all. Great story.
ReplyDeleteWe were all shocked by the money the drug companies and others spent to try and block this bill once they realized it was probably going to pass. Senator Head really helped navigate the crazy flurry of lobbyist throughout. It wasn't his first rodeo.
DeleteCongrats. We used to use Sudafed (the little red pill) all the time for our congestion until the dang blood pressure and afib stopped that! I knew it was becoming hard to get, apparently not hard enough -- until now :-).
ReplyDeleteIt's only going to be hard to get for smurfs. This bill does not restrict sales to those who need it.
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