Iowa's PSE Tracking System Shows Results

December 22, 2010 12:49 pm

Iowa’s National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEX), implemented in September 2010, has blocked over 10,000 sales of over-the-counter medications containing pseudoephedrine (PSE), likely helping to fight the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine in the state. All Iowa pharmacies use the NPLEX system when customers purchase PSE products, the primary precursor ingredient used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. By scanning the back of a customer’s driver’s license, pharmacy staff can see whether the purchase should be approved, or if it should be denied because an individual has already purchased more than his or her monthly limit of a PSE product. Since September, the system approved over 200,000 purchases of PSE products and denied 10,425 attempted purchases. Dale Woolery, associate director, Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, told the Globe Gazette that while the system cannot eliminate meth labs in the state, officials are “confident that it is going to have a dampening effect on meth lab activity.”