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| 8 May 2001 - North County Times Store employees get meth law training Vista Wal-Mart first in county to be trained under anti-meth campaign By Jo Moreland VISTA – Forty Vista Wal-Mart employees discovered on Monday, as part of a new law enforcement program, that many items they routinely sell could be used to make illegal methamphetamine. The store employees were the first in the county to be trained under the Operation No-2-Meth campaign, sponsored by the county’s Methamphetamine Strike Force and the Vista Partners Project. Under the program, retail employees will be trained in Vista and San Diego to watch for customers who want illegal amounts of products or groups of products used to make meth at small clandestine labs. “I didn’t know we sold so many items that in combination would make that stuff,” Tina Newton, a Wal-Mart department manager, said after the half-hour training session at the Vista store. City, county and state laws now restrict purchase of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products to three packages within 24 hours. Those chemicals can be obtained through over-the-counter cold medications, authorities said. “If you sell six boxes in one transaction, you could be arrested,” Vista Deputy Dustin Love told the employees. “It’s like selling tobacco to a minor.” Store employees also learned that items used to make meth include unexpected and common household materials, such as aluminum foil, coffee filters and rock and iodized salt. Love told the employees they shouldn’t sell more then three packages of the restricted products, and that they should phone in any suspicious sales to the meth hotline, 1-877-NO2-METH (662-6384). Anonymous calls are accepted. Carolyn Simpson, sheriff’s research specialist, said 33 clandestine meth labs were found last year in the county, according to federal Drug Enforcement Administration and county Narcotics Task Force statistics. Of those, Simpson said, 18 – about 55 percent – were in North County. So far this year, six labs have been found in North County, she said. Producing one pound of meth results in about six pounds of waste products that are often dumped in pits in back yards or elsewhere, endangering the environment, said Undersheriff Jack Drown. The labs are also dangerous because they use products that are volatile, caustic, toxic and explosive, Love said. He compared the effects of meth and labs to that of second-hand smoke. The so-called “Beavis and Butthead” type of labs these days in San Diego County can be found almost anywhere, including vehicle trunks, motel rooms, homes, back yards and garages, said deputies. This is kind of taking a different step from the thing we normally do, but we think it’s the right thing to do,” said Debbie Kintzele, Wal-Mart district manager, about her company’s involvement in the campaign. |
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