A few months ago, conversation on WAJI-FM – 95.1’s "Majic in the Morning" turned from light-hearted banter to law and order – specifically host Jeannette Rinard’s two-week appearance on the Web site Indiana’s Most Wanted.

The 42-year-old Steuben County resident, military mom and self-described non-rule-breaker had a warrant out for her arrest.

Her crime? Violating the state’s pseudoephedrine purchase law.

Enacted in 2005 with the goal of making it difficult for methamphetamine cooks to buy pseudoephedrine, Indiana’s law prohibits consumers from buying more than 3 grams of the drug in a seven-day period. It is more restrictive than the federal Combat Meth Act, enacted around the same time that bans the purchase of more than 3 grams of pseudoephedrine in a day.

Those charged with busting meth labs and dealing with the cleanup say Indiana’s law is no longer having much effect in slowing the stream of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine – the most important methamphetamine ingredient – to meth cooks.

And for people like Rinard, it created an expensive and embarrassing experience from which she’s just now extracted herself.

An eye-opener

Rinard has allergies, made worse at the end of summer by seasonal hay fever.

She’s not quite sure when she made the criminal purchase of decongestant, but she does remember getting into her car to take her cat to the vet, only to be met by a Steuben County Sheriff’s Department deputy in her driveway.

She felt her heart jump, worrying whether something had happened to her son, who is in the military.

"(The deputy) looked at me really funny and asked if I had allergies," Rinard said.

She said yes, and he told her he had a warrant for her arrest.

"I was in shock," Rinard said. "Luckily, I don’t look like a meth user."

The deputy told her she could go ahead and take her cat to the vet but to come into the sheriff’s department the next day to sort it out, she said.

Rinard called her attorney, Bill Eberhard, who told her not to go to the police station because they would arrest her and book her into the jail. Instead, Eberhard handled it for her, calling the Steuben County Prosecutor’s Office and offering proof of his client’s end-of-summer allergies.

But it cost Rinard $500 to fight the misdemeanor charge and weeks of anxiety while she lived under the shadow of the outstanding arrest warrant.

Fodder for radio

She had an odd way to relieve the stress – talking openly and often about her travail on the morning radio show.

"We tried to make light of it," Rinard said. "I heard from people who went through the process and spent thousands of dollars getting it dropped. They’re spending money they don’t have to fight charges that never should have been filed in the first place."

Rinard was quite familiar with some of the restrictions on buying pseudoephedrine.

What she wasn’t aware of was the time limit, something she said was not posted anywhere at the pharmacy where she bought her medicine.

An important tool

After Indiana’s law was enacted, all products containing pseudoephedrine were moved behind the pharmacy counter at groceries and drugstores. Buyers had to sign for it and present valid identification.

For the first six to nine months after the law was in existence, it seemed to work, said Indiana State Police 1st Sgt. Niki Crawford, who heads the state’s Meth Suppression Unit.

But after that, the meth addicts and cookers figured out a way around it, Crawford said, and continued to make the deadly drug at a near-record pace, with 1,059 labs busted in 2008, according to the state police.

2009 is on track to be a banner year, with 794 labs broken up so far, she said.

"Criminals figure out a way to skirt the law, and they have figured out a way to skirt this law," Crawford said.

The law is not without its benefits, however.

"We use it as a starting point," said Jeff Stineberg, an Allen County deputy prosecutor in charge of drug prosecution.

When someone buys a product containing pseudoephedrine, the buyer’s name is listed on a log. That log is then checked by law enforcement officers who note how much was bought. If it is too much, or the name appears often at a variety of stores, prosecutors and law enforcement officers may use that information to further investigate the possibility of a meth lab.

"The list is a useful tool for us," Crawford said. "Law enforcement has to have the tools to figure out who these meth cooks are and what they’re doing."

Easy to break law?

It can be easy to go over the pseudoephedrine purchase limits without knowing it, especially if you are stocking up for allergy or cold season.

Steuben County Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Musser handles the pseudoephedrine violations in the northern county, one frequently plagued by meth activity.

He said he and the police officers try to weed out the innocent purchases from the logs.

Sometimes before he files charges, he said, he’ll talk to the officer to find out more about the name on the list. But in the end, it’s his job to charge.

"The law is the law, and I’m going to prosecute," Musser said.

Rinard’s attorney, Bill Eberhard, lives and works in LaGrange County and sees firsthand the effect of methamphetamine use in the small community, in all areas of the legal field, from divorce to bankruptcy to criminal charges.

But he sees a need for more common-sense application – not just by law enforcement and prosecutors but by pharmacists as well.

Alternatives

There are decongestants other than pseudoephedrine – and some drug companies changed their formulas to keep their products from being relegated to a location behind the pharmacy counter.

And Crawford of the state police is quick to point out that pseudoephedrine is not a cure-all.

"It’s not like it’s the cure for cancer. It’s not a miracle drug," she said. "We have to figure out what are our priorities; … are they protecting the communities from meth labs or having one particular cold and allergy drug available."

For Rinard, she now buys her pseudoephedrine with a prescription, which people can do if they know they’re going to need more than 3 grams of the drug.

She would like to see drugstores do a better job of publicizing the seven-day limit, and maybe see prosecutors do a better job of communicating with people who may be innocently on the purchase logs.

"They could save money if they’d just send out a letter saying, ‘Hey, you’re name’s on the list; … are you aware of this time frame?’ " she said. "It’s really crazy. They need to get some clarification."

rgreen@jg.net