“They’re making these one-pot batches,” Franklin pharmacist Shane Judy said.
Judy’s comments came at Friday’s meeting of Venango County’s drug overdose task force.
Meth manufacturers don’t use the large-scale method anymore like the one in the TV show, “Breaking Bad,” Judy said. Now the street drug is more commonly manufactured in small amounts, he said.
“You don’t find big meth labs anymore,” task force member and probation officer Ed Powell said.
Meth is made using a mixture of chemicals including pseudoephedrine tablets that can be purchased at a drug store. Pseudoephedrine tablets are sold over-the-counter with brand names such as Sudafed and Bronkaid.
Large-scale producers were easier to identify because they would attempt to purchase pseudoephedrine tablets from drug stores in large quantities, Judy said.
“One-pot” meth can be made using a smaller number of pseudoephedrine tablets and these purchases are harder to track, he said.
“It makes it harder to combat the problem,” Judy said.
Judy also alerted the task force to a website that provides a discussion forum for illegal drug users to share and compare information about using street drugs.
Other site users respond to the posts with their own experiences and comments.
An FAQ on the site says it doesn’t “condone or condemn the use of illegal drugs.”
The site “anticipates that people will continue to use illegal drugs regardless of the potential health or legal consequences,” the FAQ reads.
The site advocates for “harm reduction” or using drugs in moderation.