Is Meth Moving Into Your Neighborhood? Part 1 of a Series

Franklin County Sheriff's Department Sergeant Jason Grellner makes finding meth his mission. He's the President of the Missouri Narcotics Association and the Unit Commander of the Franklin County Narcotics Unit which works in conjunction with the St. Louis County Drug Task Force.

Grellner said meth started showing up in the St. Louis area in 1996. That's 20 years after the FDA changed the drug pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that is also the key ingredient for making meth, from requiring a prescription to an over-the-counter drug. The FDA made that change in 1976.

"Missouri has been the leader in meth labs for over a decade. 2010 was the only year we weren't ranked number one, Tennessee took us over and we were back as number one in 2011," Grellner told Patch.

 "In the state of Missouri right now, a box of pseudoephedrine is sold every 16 seconds," he said. "You cannot tell me there are that many sick people in the state of Missouri."

However, Grellner said there's a solution to this problem, it's called House Bill 1952. He is pushing it in the Missouri Legislature. The bill would make it a statewide law to require people to have a prescription to purchase the drug pseudoephedrine. It would also allow an exemption for some newly developed products that can't be made into meth.

He said despite opposition, he has seen proof that this is one of the only measures to effectively decrease meth activity. He said counties in the Cape Girardeau area, a meth-making hot spot, passed a prescription-only ordinance for pseudoephedrine in 2011. 

"Nine counties in and around Cape Girardeau went down an average of 52 percent," Grellner said. "You want to know why? The entire area is covered by prescription only-ordinances. And the state of Arkansas is only selling to Arkansas residents."

Some, but not all, counties in our area have passed such ordinances in an effort to fight the drug. St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin Counties have passed county-wide ordinances requiring a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine. Grellner said the city of Troy, which houses all of Lincoln County's pharmacies, has passed a similar ordinance , along with Eureka, Ellisville, and Wildwood. Fenton, currently the number one spot in the area for purchasing pseudoephedrine is also considering a prescription-only ordinance.

However, St. Louis County does not have a county-wide ordinance requiring a prescription to buy pseudophedrin and Grellner said that is resulting in meth moving in.

"Since St. Charles and Jefferson Counties became prescription only, we have seen huge spikes in St. Louis County that we have not seen before," Grellner said.

"I want St. Louis County to pass a prescription-only law, and watch how fast meth labs drop in the eastern part of the state," he said. "They would see the same decrease they are seeing in the Cape Girardeau area because the largest concentration of pharmacies are in the St. Louis County and St. Louis City area."  

Drug agents are tracking the purchase of pseudoephedrine in St. Louis County, and Grellner said the amount of the drug bought at local pharmacies does not add up.

"An average  store would sell about 329 boxes, and average  would sell 280 boxes and an average CVS would sell 215. So you tell me why these numbers are thee and four hundred precent higher," Grellner said.

Currently, Oregon and Mississippi are the only two states that have made pseudoephedrine available by prescription only. Grellner said studies indicate both states with the state-wide ordinance show "significant drops" in meth labs.