SPRINGFIELD, IL - State Senator John Sullivan (D - Rushville) announced that legislation to assist police in tracking possible methamphetamine manufacturers and distributors has been signed into law.

House Bill 865 creates a pilot program to track purchases of pseudoephedrine in Adams, Madison, St. Clair and Vermilion counties. The drug is a key ingredient in the production of methamphetamines.

The initiative is modeled after a similar program in Williamson County funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The program there has given the Williamson County Sheriff the ability to track pseudoephedrine purchases using an access to an electronic database of drugstores and pharmacies in Franklin, Williamson, Jackson, Johnson, Saline and Union Counties.

“Methamphetamine usage has been a serious and ongoing concern in Western Illinois,” Sullivan said. “It’s important our state and local authorities have all the necessary tools to combat this deadly drug. This pilot program is especially significant because it targets the producers and distributors of methamphetamines, rather than the users. We will never effectively stamp out meth use in our communities unless we attack it at its source.”

The counties selected for the pilot program have some of the highest numbers of reported methamphetamine manufacturers in the state.

For instance, the Illinois Methamphetamine Manufacturing Registry maintained by the Illinois State Police shows seven convicted methamphetamine manufacturers in Adams County, nine in Vermilion County, and 41 in Madison and St. Clair Counties.