Seizures of methamphetamine labs dropped significantly in Kentucky and Indiana in the year after both states restricted the sale of products used to make the drug, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. In Kentucky, meth-lab seizures fell nearly 57 percent. The decrease in Indiana was 24 percent. Jason Barclay, chairman of state Criminal Justice Institute, said the state didn’t do a good job tracking lab seizures in the past, and those numbers probably were higher than reported.
Officials say the new laws — similar to those in more than 30 other states — had an immediate impact by making it harder for meth manufacturers to obtain cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the drug’s production. The logs that retailers must keep have proved to be valuable resources. In Daviess County, Ky., for example, the sheriff’s office collects information from the logs and feeds it into a computer database. Two narcotics detectives then comb the database for people buying large quantities of the products. Sheriff Keith Cain said prosecutors have indicted 14 individuals who were discovered because of information found in the logs.
Link: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060710/NEWS01/607100377&SearchID=732