Across North Carolina, methamphetamine lab busts have skyrocketed. In 2011, there were 344 separate meth incidents recorded, a 46 percent increase from 2010, according to State Bureau of Investigation numbers. Not in Beaufort County, however.
While meth labs were found in 68 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, Beaufort County seems to have missed the methamphetamine trend that has slowly permeated the nation over the past three decades.
“In the 15 years I’ve been working with the drug unit, I’ve only seen three meth labs in Beaufort County,” said a spokesman from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Drug Unit, a fact attributed to lack of demand—that the drug is simply not a primary drug of choice in Beaufort County.
“We’ve arrested people for using, but the information we’ve received (through investigations) is that it’s not being made in Beaufort County,” he continued.
Of the 32 counties that did not see any meth lab busts in 2011, 16 of them exist in the eastern part of the state, a pocket of eastern and northeastern counties bordered by Pamlico and Craven counties to the south, Martin, Bertie, Hertford, Gates counties at the western edge. Pitt County, with two lab busts in 2011, and Lenoir County, with five, are the closest counties in which the drug is known to be manufactured.
“That’s not to say they don’t exist here,” the spokesman said, going to on attribute the lack of a meth problem on the recent crackdown on the ease of buying pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine, in pharmacies. “Since they changed the pseudoephedrine law we haven’t had any problem.”
Pseudoephedrine is found in common cold remedies such as Sudafed. That the substance is an over-the-counter medication has led to preventative measures in acquiring it for the purpose of “cooking” methamphetamine. According to North Carolina General Statute, 90-113.52, products containing pseudoephedrine can only be sold in blister packages, must be stored and sold from behind a pharmacy counter to persons over 18 years of age. The law also prohibits the purchase of more than two packages of the products containing pseudoephedrine per day, and no more than three packages within a 30-day period. On the seller’s side, pharmacies are required to take the name and address of every purchaser, as well as the purchaser’s signature indicating compliance with state law. Pharmacies must keep a record of those transactions for a period of two years from the date of each transaction, making them available to law enforcement officials with 48 hours of the transaction.
Law enforcement tracking down meth manufacturers across the state were given a boost when North Carolina recently began participating in a NPLEx, or National Precursor Log Exchange, a system that identifies those attempting to buy large quantities of pseudoephedrine-containing products.  Over a dozen states participate in the program; in North Carolina over 99 percent of all pharmacies are now on the NPLEx system, according to an SBI representative.
The rise of meth labs and meth lab busts over the past several years has been attributed to the ease in manufacturing the drug, though the new laws are expected to cut down on the escalation.