Madigan: Smaller meth labs increasing in Illinois

Attorney General Lisa Madigan met with southern Illinois law enforcement to talk about how to stop the spread of small-scale methamphetamine production.

Madigan talked on Friday in Carterville about the smaller labs, which use empty, plastic bottles to mix smaller batches of meth. The new method lets drug makers elude laws that regulate the sale of the key meth ingredient pseudoephedrine.

The Methamphetamine Precursor Control Act of 2006 restricts consumers from buying more than two packages of pseudoephedrine at one time. That led to a 52 percent drop in meth lab reports in 2007. But Madigan says meth producers have adapted and now use lawful amounts of pseudoephedrine to make smaller batches of meth.

She says producing smaller batches is easier to conceal and can be mobile.