Stickers aim to send meth makers elsewhere to buy

<br>STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ A new program in Payne County is aimed at making methamphetamine dealers go somewhere else to do their shopping. <br><br>Undersheriff Ken Willerton heads a group of deputies

Monday, February 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ A new program in Payne County is aimed at making methamphetamine dealers go somewhere else to do their shopping.

Undersheriff Ken Willerton heads a group of deputies canvassing convenience stores, pharmacy supply stores and drug stores in the country, asking them to place stickers that warn shoppers about buying large amounts of meth-making materials.

Those could include rock salt, coffee filters, alcohol, sinus medication or lithium batteries, among other things.

``It is getting so easy to manufacture. Anyone with a stove and a pot can make the stuff,'' Willerton said.

``We got those stickers to put in places so that people would be aware of what they are buying,'' Willerton said. ``It has turned out to be more of a deterrent, I think. ... We think people go in, see the signs and go somewhere else.''

The decision as to whether to notify authorities about a purchase is left up to the judgment of the business owners.

``Someone goes in and buys 40 or 50 bottles of ephedrine, they aren't buying it to take,'' Willerton said. ``They're only buying it to make something with.''

Kym Koch, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said she believes the sticker program is the first of its kind in the state. The program could be effective because of its ability to make people pay more attention to the meth drug trade, she said.

``Basically, anything that raises the awareness in the public and with the store owners is a good thing,'' she said.

The measure of the sticker program's success will be the resulting arrests, she said.

Charles Fowler, manager of Consumer's IGA in Stillwater, said he decided to use the stickers because of the community service it provides.

``I thought it was a great idea,'' he said. ``We have a very visible location on each of our registers to attach that sticker. I think people really like it.''

The sticker program comes after a recently released report that officers last year destroyed 22 meth labs in Payne County. That is three more than were destroyed in the county during 2000.

Busts are coordinated by the drug task force for Payne and Logan counties, where 42 labs were destroyed last year.

``We've been seeing an increase in meth lab numbers for years,'' said Jack Bowyer, a Payne County prosecutor who heads the task force. ``They are popping up in rural areas as well as the Stillwater city limits.''

Funded by about $100,000 in grant money from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the task force is made up of officers from several agencies within Payne County.