It seems that despite the best efforts of Oregon policymakers and law enforcement, methamphetamine (meth) abuse continues to ravage the Beaver State.
Recent media coverage has unveiled a newer, darker side of the Oregon drug scene—Mexican drug cartels trafficking meth into our state. In the past, they were a fringe sideshow; more meth was produced locally. That has changed. They are now the dominant supplier. And the meth problem has become less predictable, more expensive, harder to spot, and generally more violent.
The infiltration of drug cartels is the logical outcome of the state’s steady decline in local meth production. Since 2005, Oregon, along with surrounding Washington and California, began to see a drastic drop in the number of meth labs busted in the state. Compounding that trend, policymakers adopted a strict new law in 2006 that required residents to obtain a prescription in order to purchase cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a precursor to meth production. The impetus for the new restriction was the belief that by restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, meth would be kept out of the hands of criminals, and meth abuse in our state would be impacted.
The outcome has turned out to be quite the opposite. As local meth production declined, generally for reasons separate from Oregon’s pseudoephedrine prescription law, violent Mexican drug cartels have been able to infiltrate so much of the state that they have become impossible to ignore. As was pointed out recently by The Oregonian in an exposé on the topic, the Mexican meth now flowing into the state has the added benefit of also being cheaper and more potent than any other meth on the market. As a result, meth abuse, and related meth crime, hasn’t decreased in the least. Indeed, the 2013 Oregon High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s Threat Assessment and Counter Drug Strategy report surveyed law enforcement across the state who said that meth remains the number-one cause of property crime and violent crime. Meanwhile, the Office of National Drug Control says that Oregon meth seizures have been trending upward since 2008; and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conservatively estimates that 80% of the country’s meth now comes from over the southern border.
But all of these facts still don’t change the minds of those who are convinced that Oregon’s prescription laws for pseudoephedrine successfully cured the state of its meth problem. Oregon’s experience is referenced often as the model solution. Even a recent federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) study cites Oregon’s success in enacting proactive legislation as the reason for its progress. In reality, however, Oregon’s prescription law is not responsible for the state’s drop in meth labs, and its meth problem is anything but solved.
Last year, Cascade Policy Institute performed a study to determine whether Oregon’s prescription mandate was the reason for the state’s reduction in meth labs. The findings were enlightening. Our study concluded that while Oregon had seen a dramatic drop in meth labs between 2004 and 2010, it was not a result of a prescription mandate. We were able to draw that conclusion by looking at regional trends and timelines. Other western states including California and Washington saw similar declines without the passage of prescription laws. And by breaking the data down by year, we found that the vast majority of Oregon’s decline in meth production took place prior to the passage of any prescription law.
Our research was meticulous, reliable, and verifiable. It has since been confirmed by other researchers, including most recently by Siddharth Chandra of Michigan State University. Dr. Chandra conducted his own study in response to the above-mentioned GAO report, criticizing it for its methodology. Noting that the report fails to account for regional trends, he determines that the GAO falsely attributes a decline in meth labs to Oregon’s strict prescription laws. His conclusions are accurate and consistent with Cascade’s.
The fallacy of the Oregon experience has lived on long enough. It is time for policymakers across the country to understand that Oregon’s prescription law for pseudoephedrine has failed to achieve its goals. Meanwhile, honest Oregonians who simply want to buy effective cold medicine over the counter have been forced to suffer due to tight restrictions on their personal freedoms. If progress is to be made in the fight against methamphetamine abuse, an honest discussion must take place. It is time to admit the failure of prescription laws for pseudoephedrine.
Steve Buckstein is Founder and Senior Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.
