CHPA Statement on Alabama Drug Abuse Task Force Report

State Sees Significant Reduction in Meth Labs

News provided by

Consumer Healthcare Products Association

Jun 03, 2013, 12:00 ET

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) released the following statement today in response to last week's report put together by the Alabama Drug Abuse Task Force (ADATF) Sub-Committee. The report, which looked at the effectiveness of Act 2012-237 and the pseudoephedrine electronic tracking system, or National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx), found that the provisions of the Act and the modifications to the NPLEx system "have had a major impact on reducing domestic meth production in Alabama."

"The new ADATF Sub-Committee report provides concrete evidence that NPLEx is doing exactly what it was designed to do: block illegal sales of pseudoephedrine, keeping it out of the hands of criminals who might divert it towards the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine," said Carlos Gutierrez, senior director of state government affairs for CHPA. "The Sub-Committee report is proof that significant progress can be made in stopping the illegal sales of cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine when all stakeholders work together to support common-sense policies. What is especially significant is that Alabama was able to achieve significant progress against meth without further restricting access to popular nonprescription cold and allergy medicines."

Key findings from the report:

In Q1 of 2013, 69,121.334 grams of PSE were blocked in Alabama using NPLEx. That is a 43% increase from Q1 2012.
In the same time period, sales of PSE have decreased by 7.6% (441,523 boxes sold in Q1 of 2012 vs. 407,866 boxes sold in Q1 of 2013)
From 2012 to 2013, The Alabama Fusion Center reports a 35% decrease in meth lab seizures.
In the same time period, The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences reports a 64% decrease in meth lab cases
Narcotic agents in areas of Alabama that historically have significantly high numbers of meth lab seizures have experienced as much as a 66% reduction in clandestine meth lab seizures since 2012.