Smuggling from Louisiana

Back in January, a Mississippi newspaper warned that our new law to combat meth wouldn’t work. The law requires a prescription to get pseudoephedrine containing products. Since pseudoephedrine is an ingredient used to make meth, the idea was to limit access and reduce the amount of methamphetamine that could be cooked up by illegal labs. The criticism was that it was a fine law, but our neighbor, Louisiana, wasn’t playing along. In other words, enterprising meth makers could take a drive across the border to get “the necessaries.”

In a parody of classic supply and demand, the high demand for meth would drive the supply side and the cost of driving west wouldn’t be enough to inhibit criminals. A December story out of Louisiana gives some evidence for exactly this. Two men, both Mississippi residents, were acting suspiciously in a Louisiana pharmacy. They were buying pseudoephedrine containing products and an off duty police officer noticed their behavior. He followed the pair who were eventually pulled over by local police.

The two are charged, not with pseudoephedrine purchases (which are legal in Louisiana) but with having marijuana and a small quantity of meth already on hand.

How would it work? Well, there’s a method of making methamphetamine while you drive around. It’s called the “one bottle” method, or alternatively, “shake and bake.” The idea is to put all the ingredients to make meth in a single bottle – creating a toxic, explosive brew – and get some small amount of the drug out at the end. The procedure is quite dangerous and the waste products are as well. In fact, it’s become a problem for those tasked with picking up litter along the highway. A mysterious plastic bottle containing some liquid that might be hazardous waste.

The suspicion that our criminals may be getting supplies for Louisiana is difficult to prove outright. Sales are not tracked to individuals and identification is not required for purchase. Hopefully, law enforcement is aware of the possibility and monitoring the situation.