TERRE HAUTE — More than six years after Vigo County led Indiana in methamphetamine laboratories seized by police, the problem has not gone away in the Wabash Valley. If anything, the problem of mom-and-pop meth labs has only spread throughout the state.

In 2010, Vanderburgh County (county seat Evansville) had the highest number of seized labs, 95.

As the Indiana legislature deals with bills intended to help police fight meth production and addiction, the Indiana State Police Methamphetamine Suppression Section has released statistics that take a long-term look at the meth problem in Indiana.

It was a record year statewide for meth lab seizures — 1,395 recorded by the Indiana State Police, an increase of 31 from 2009.

In fact, 2010 was a record year for all categories of meth-related activities, according to state police data.

ISP First Sgt. Niki Crawford and others in law enforcement around the state have been encouraging legislators to reschedule the cold-medicine ingredient pseudoephedrine (or PSE) as a controlled substance. It was a controlled substance before 1976.

PSE is the only required ingredient in any meth recipe used in clandestine meth production. That makes it the target for police who believe limiting access to the drug will reduce meth labs.

That theory proved correct about six years ago when Vigo County passed an ordinance requiring pharmacies to track and limit PSE sales to customers. The legislature soon passed a law, and the number of labs discovered did decline.

In 2004, ISP seized 1,011 meth labs. That statewide number rose to 1,137 in 2004, and dropped to 1,065 in 2005. By 2006, the total had dropped to 803.

As meth producers began to figure ways around the purchase limit law (mainly by recruiting others to buy PSE for them), the number of labs discovered and seized crept back up.

By 2008, the statewide total reported by ISP was 1,104. In 2009 it jumped to 1,364. And in 2010 the record was set at 1,395.

During those same years, Vigo County saw a similar trend.

After the record of 95 labs seized in 2004, the numbers dropped to 19 in 2005, 10 in 2006 and three in 2007.

But numbers started rising again, as 17 labs were seized in 2008 and 42 in 2009. Police seized 19 in 2010 in Vigo County.

From the years 2000 to 2010, Vigo County had the state’s second-highest number of meth labs seized, according to the ISP statistics.

Only Knox County to the south had more —  507 labs seized during the same time. While Knox County’s highest number of labs recovered topped out at 71 in 2003, the overall number of labs seized has remained consistently in the 30s or 40s each year.

Sullivan County has trailed Vigo, with a total of 263 labs seized since 2000. Parke County has seen 121 labs seized, while Clay has recorded 144 and Vermillion has had 119.

ISP’s Crawford has also used statistics from past years to predict where Indiana will be in two years. She also has studied other states’ efforts at battling meth labs.

Hoosier police support the PSE prescription-only sales enacted in Mississippi and Oregon, as opposed to the electronic tracking  Kentucky uses.

Mississippi saw a 68-percent reduction in meth labs during the first six months after returning PSE to a prescription drug. And Oregon saw a 72-percent decrease in labs in the first six months after rescheduling PSE as a prescription drug. Oregon saw an additional 40-percent reduction during the next six months.

Kentucky, by contrast, has seen a 248-percent increase in meth lab seizures in the more than two years since it chose to implement electronic tracking of PSE sales as the means of locating meth labs. Crawford has pointed out that electronic tracking did not reduce meth labs.

Using the examples of Oregon and Mississippi, Crawford predicted that if PSE is returned to prescription-only status, Indiana could expect to see the number of meth labs seized by ISP reduced from 1,346 in 2010 to 243 in 2012.

Using Kentucky’s experience, if the legislature goes for the electronic tracking method, the data shows that ISP will recover an estimated 3,338 meth labs in 2012, she said.
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