BANGOR (AP) — Maine drug enforcement officials say the state saw fewer than half as many reports of meth production this year as last year’s record high.
The Bangor Daily News reports law enforcement officers and drug treatment counselors warn the drop doesn’t necessarily mean supply or demand of the addictive stimulant has dropped. Methamphetamine also is coming in out of state.
Maine’s Drug Enforcement Agency reported 56 incidents of meth production in 2017 compared with 127 in 2016.
The newspaper reported that 2014 U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data shows that meth-making paraphernalia was discovered more than three times as often in Maine than in New Hampshire or Massachusetts.
Law enforcement officers say they attribute the decline to a years-old law blocking the sale of over-the-counter medicine containing ephedrine, a key ingredient in meth.
This small methamphetamine operation was discovered in Gray in 2015.
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