Drug dealers who make methamphetamine have little trouble skirting legal obstacles in Tennessee.
A new comptroller’s study looks at a database lawmakers created two years ago, meant to block criminals from buying multiple boxes of pseudoephedrine – the cold drug that’s a key ingredient to making meth.
This past fall police were still finding about 150 meth labs around the state each month. The study says dealers may recruit others to help gather supplies, use fake IDs or cook smaller batches of the drug more often.
The comptroller’s study also found better results for states requiring a prescription to get pseudoephedrine. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation asked for such a measure two years ago, but state lawmakers like Senator Mae Beavers turned it down.
In a statement today Beavers argues the database law, which she sponsored, is succeeding by helping police find more meth labs.
The comptroller’s full report can be found here.
Page 21 of the state study, which shows the number of meth labs found each month persisting in recent years despite the database. In early 2011 funding to clean up toxic lab sites went away, which enforcers blame for temporarily shrinking reported totals.
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