Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller launched a statewide campaign Monday in Warsaw to bring attention to a drug activity called “smurfing.” “Smurfing” – or the practice of purchasing cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine to sell to methamphetamine cooks – will become a Class D felony under a statute authored by Sen. Carlin Yoder (R-Middlebury). The statute takes effect July 1. A Class D felony is punishable from six months to three years but can aggravate up to a Class C felony – punishable from two years to eight years. Zoeller and Yoder were joined by representatives from the Indiana Retail Council, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office at a press conference at CVS in Warsaw Monday afternoon. Zoeller said the anti-smurfing campaign will bring the public’s attention to the increase in meth abuse in Indiana and will encourage law enforcement to attack the problem on the front line at the pharmacies. “This public awareness campaign warns Hoosiers about that purchasing pseudoephedrine for the purposes of either making meth or selling it to a meth cook is a crime,” Zoeller said. “If you buy pseudoephedrine for a meth cook, you are an accessory and a felon.”
