Amphetamines News

A new anti-methamphetamine bill has a lot of benefits and will limit access to pseudoephedrine — the ingredient necessary for any recipe for meth.

"There are many ways to cook meth, but the one common thing you have to have is pseudoephedrine," said Rob Savage, commander of the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit.

Limiting access to pseudoephedrine is a logical approach to reduce the amount of meth labs, he said.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Blaine Galliher, R-Rainbow City, and Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison, became law a few weeks ago.

Pseudoephedrine or ephedrine products now can only be obtained through a pharmacy, Savage said.

The drug is much easier to track through the National Precursor Log Exchange, called NPLEx, which monitors the purchase of pseudoephedrine products.

Restricting access to pharmacies really helps, said Woody Johnson, deputy commander of the DEU and one of three agents certified in meth lab cleanup.

Johnson said it was easier to acquire pseudoephedrine in places where it wasn't tracked, and many addicts would trade it for meth to those who made the drug in small labs.

"When it was sold in these mom-and-pop stores, it didn't go into the NPLEx system," he said.