After the first three months of a new electronic tracking system, pharmacies in Tennessee say they’ve stopped the sale of about 15,000 products containing pseudoephedrine.It’s a common ingredient in cold medicine and the key ingredient in methamphetamine.
Drug stores have had to log sales of pseudoephedrine for years, in the hopes of identifying repeat buyers who use it for meth production. But the new system collects data from all of the state’s pharmacies, in real time.
That 15,000 figure comes out of more than half a million pseudoephedrine products sold in the state.
While the new data is useful, there’s not a enough to really know if the tracking system is having an effect on meth production. Tommy Farmer leads the state’s Meth Taskforce.
“We have to look at the total amount of sales, how does that compare, what percent of those were blocked. And then we need to apply that to take a look at our lab seizures actually reduced. Is our meth problem or our meth lab problem reducing?”
Farmer says he’s cautiously optimistic about the new tracking system. It shares data with law enforcement within 24 hours of a purchase. He says that’s already been helpful in some investigations.
Many law enforcement agencies in the state, including the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, have asked that pseudoephedrine be available only by prescription. While two states have taken that step, Tennessee lawmakers adopted the electronic database instead.
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