An Everett man and woman were recently among the first people in Snohomish County to be charged under a controversial law that limits the sale of over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines.
James A. Coulter, 30, and Danyel D. Willard, 28, were arrested in Oregon after police found them with a large number of cold tablets.
Detectives think the pair had bought the medicine in Snohomish County. It was unclear why they were taking it out of state but the tablets likely were for the production of methamphetamine, said Lt. John Flood with the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force.
Investigators didn’t find any evidence of a lab at their homes, he said.
Task force detectives focused on the pair while inspecting logbooks from pharmacies and retailers licensed to sell medicines containing chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine.
State lawmakers passed a law last year that restricts the sale of Sudafed, Claritin-D and other nonprescription allergy medicines.
The idea was to make it tougher for people to obtain large quantities of common remedies that also contain chemicals used in the production of the illegal drug.
The law requires stores to demand photo identification for every purchase of some over-the-counter medicines. It also requires stores to keep a log of who buys the drugs.
The task force scrutinizes those logs. Detectives have inspected about 17,000 sales since January among the 117 stores and pharmacies in the county that they monitor, Flood said.
Target and Wal-Mart send their information electronically, and the names of those who have bought cold or allergy medicine is entered into a database.
Other retailers keep handwritten logs, and investigators enter only the names of those who violate the law, Flood said.
“We’re not looking for people who buy one to two boxes a year,” Flood said. “We want those people who are buying it to make meth.”
The number of labs found in Snohomish County was on the decline before the law went into effect, and it continues to drop.
Meth use, however, has continued to hold steady.
A greater amount of the drug is being imported from superlabs in Mexico or California, where a higher quality drug is being produced.
Still, detectives believe the new state law is making some dent in local production.
“These guys are lazy. They don’t want to work too hard to get it,” Flood said.
The task force has found about 50 people who bought more than their legal share. Detectives have questioned about 10 people on the list, Flood said.
“This is not our first investigation using the new law,” he said. “It is our first one to lead to an arrest.”
The couple was charged Thursday with purchasing or acquiring pseudoephedrine in excess of allowable limits – a gross misdemeanor.
Coulter purchased 204 boxes of cold and allergy medicine since January at various locations, said county deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell.
Investigators initially interviewed another woman about Willard’s alleged purchases. They learned the woman’s purse had been stolen and think Willard used the woman’s identification to buy five boxes of cold medicine in less than 24 hours.
Opponents of the law predicted that violators would use fake or stolen identifications.
They also worried about the privacy of law-abiding cold suffers and the effect on grocery stores and other business, which now are gathering customer information to turn over to the state.
Flood said all the stores they inspect are in compliance with the law.
The law also has taken a toll on the marketplace. Smaller mom-and-pop stores have dropped out of the business of selling cold medicines, while bigger chains have reduced the kinds they carry, Flood said.
“We know this law is inconvenient. We know it’s not the most popular law on the books,” Flood said. “We wanted to show people that it can make a difference.”
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
