Meth-lab seizures drop 84% since '99

Just six years after Utah was near the top in the nation for the number of meth lab raids per capita, such seizures in Utah have plummeted.

The number of illicit methamphetamine-producing operations shut down in Utah last year dropped by 84 percent from 1999's total. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency reports that 242 labs were raided and materials seized in 1999, compared to 38 in 2005.

Some law enforcement officials believe that voluntary and forced restrictions on the sale of meth-related products, principally cold medicines like Sudafed that contain chemicals necessary in the production of meth- amphetamine, have been successful in limiting local meth labs.

Other potential reasons for the decrease include the concerted efforts of law enforcement officials to confront the meth epidemic and the effect of cheaper Mexican meth being brought into the state, officials said.

When members of Congress passed an extension of the Patriot Act, they included a provision that requires over-the-counter medicines containing the chemical pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to cook meth, to be kept behind store counters. The provision also limited the amount of pseudoephedrine products consumers can buy at one time and requires buyers to show photo ID and sign a logbook.

Although the Patriot Act restrictions will not take full effect until next January, several large retailers began voluntarily implementing the changes over the past few years — something Jacey Skinner, a Salt Lake City deputy district attorney, said has led to a decline in the amount of meth being produced in the state.

"We know that the restrictions work," she said.

However, not everyone agrees the restrictions are responsible for the decrease.

Reid Barker, executive director of the Utah Pharmacists Association, believes there is no correlation between the Patriot Act restrictions and the decrease in the number of meth labs. He said meth lab seizures began to decline years ago, before the restrictions were in place, because of the work that law enforcement officials like Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff have done to combat meth production in the state.

"The Patriot Act restrictions are more of an inconvenience to legitimate users that need cold medicine in the middle of the night," he said.

Mark Despito of the Utah DEA office said legal actions against businesses selling large amounts of precursor chemicals used to make meth, like crystal iodine and pseudoephedrine, were frequent several years ago but have now all but dropped to zero.