Unless she wins her appeal, a Mississippi grandmother who spent $8.98 on a box of Sudafed must serve a year in jail.
For Diane Avera, a 45-year-old Meridian woman who does personal care for the sick, disabled and elderly, it has been a nightmare, she said. "I keep thinking I'm going to wake up, but I never do."
She is seeking a new trial in Demopolis, Ala., after being convicted of second degree intent to manufacture methamphetamine. If she loses, she plans to appeal to the Alabama Court of Appeals.
Crackdowns taking place across the nation on pseudoephedrine and other products used to make methamphetamine have caused her to become a "prisoner of the drug war going on inside America," said her husband, Keith. "When common household medications and disinfectants are now illegal to possess, I believe we have gone overboard with the drug laws."
In 2009, grandmother Sally Harpold was handcuffed and jailed in Indiana (How did Indiana get stuck in this story? Journalistic mistake I suppose?) after she bought a box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband and a box of Mucinex D cold medicine for her adult daughter in less than a week.
Mississippi has one of the nation's strictest laws, requiring a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine.
Marshall Fisher, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, said since the law's enactment, his agency has seen a 67 percent decline from the 960 meth labs it found the year before and an 80 percent decline in children endangered by meth labs.
While it is illegal to bring pseudoephedrine products back to Mississippi, authorities don't target those who do, unless they have been arrested in the past, he said.
"We have enough to say grace over without doing that silliness," he said. "The last thing we want to be responsible for is targeting grandma."
Avera, who has three grandsons, had no prior arrests. "The only thing I've ever had is a speeding ticket," she said.
On July 29, 2010, she was getting ready for a scuba diving trip in Panama City, Fla., with her husband and others.
Her scuba instructor, Bob Sample, had urged her to buy Sudafed or similar decongestant because she had ear trouble. "I told her to go get some three days out and get your sinuses dried up," he said.
After waiting too late to get a prescription, she stopped at the Walmart pharmacy in Meridian. There, she said, a clerk urged her to travel to Alabama, where Sudafed is sold over the counter.
She picked up her son and his girlfriend, who were living in Toomsuba. She also had two of her grandsons as well as the girlfriend's nephew.
They traveled to Demopolis, where police were conducting a sting operation. Pharmacists there informed police when anyone from Mississippi bought medicine containing pseudoephedrine.
Avera said she encouraged her son and girlfriend to each buy a box of Sudafed since they lacked health insurance. They stopped at CVS, where her son purchased Sudafed D.
She bought Sudafed at Walmart since she had a gift card, she said. She also bought crayons and glue sticks for her two grandsons starting school the next week.
After leaving Walmart, she said police officer Sgt. Tim Soronen pulled her over and asked, "What brings you to Demopolis?"
"I came over to buy some Sudafed for our scuba diving trip this weekend since we cannot buy it in Meridian anymore," she said she told him.
She said the officer asked if she knew it was against the law to cross the state line and buy Sudafed. It is against the law in Mississippi to bring back pseudoephedrine products from another state, but Alabama law permits those from other states to buy the medicine as long as they sign. (Then why is Alabama prosecuting her?)
"No, sir, I did not know," she said she replied.
"I need you to step out of the car," he said.
"For what? I swear I didn't know. What did I do?" she said she asked.
"You came to Demopolis to buy some Sudafed. Step to the back of the truck," she said he told her.
The officer pulled her son from the truck, handcuffed him and searched him, finding a bottle for methadone.
She said she explained her son has had drug problems and that the methadone is a prescription.
"So he's a drug user?" she said the officer asked her.
She acknowledged her son's drug woes and said the officer began digging through her purse and asked if she had any drugs.
"No, sir, I don't do drugs," she said she replied.
Digging beneath the truck seat, officers found a pouch full of drug paraphernalia for crack cocaine. (Her son testified he had hidden the pouch, which was his.)
She said the officer remarked, "Thought you don't do drugs."
"I don't do drugs," she said she replied.
After she saw the crying children placed in the squad car, she said the officer asked if she wanted him to go ahead and call the Alabama Department of Human Resources "to pick up these kids."
A scene from her youth flashed into her mind of her brothers being taken away from her family by state welfare officials, she said. "I begged the officer, 'Please don't do this.'"
By this point, about an hour after being pulled over, she said she began begging the officer, telling him she would admit to whatever police wanted as long as they would "let my son take my babies."
He told her she had to confess all the Sudafed was hers, thereby putting her over the legal limit in Alabama, she said. "They made me admit to a crime I did not commit."
She began her statement: "I picked up Larry and Shanna from there (sic) house and came to Demopolis to buy some Sudafed for myself ..."
She told The Clarion-Ledger, "They told me to add that I was making crystal meth so I did."
She ended her statement: "I did not know it was against the law to cross the state line to purchase Sudafed. I promise to never buy another box in my life."
Contacted for comment, Soronen would not discuss the case.
Police jailed her, charged with intent to manufacture crystal meth. She said they handcuffed her hands and legs to a metal chair for 17 hours.
During the three-day trial in Marengo County Circuit Court, prosecutors used her statement against her.
District Attorney Greg Griggers said Avera confessed she was buying pills to have them cooked so she could get meth.
While out on bond, Avera took voluntary drug tests, and none came back positive. Some tests listed her creatinine level (related to kidney function) as "abnormal."
Griggers argued she had provided diluted samples. "She would water it down so you couldn't test it," he told The Clarion-Ledger.
Avera's attorney, John Wiley Hartley of Montgomery, responded that no one who administered the tests ever claimed the samples were diluted.
Griggers said Avera admitted to authorities she started using meth with her daughter and had been using for two years.
"That's a lie," Avera responded.
She said she acknowledged her children have struggled with drugs and have gone into rehab, but that she has never used drugs.
If she fails in her appeals, she would face the prospect of going back behind bars, she said. "I still am facing 10 more months in jail if I don't win."
She said she is frightened about being cut off from her grandchildren. "I've practically raised my two grandsons."
