Oregon Public Broadcasting

Four years ago, Oregon was in the midst of an unprecedented community conversation about methamphetamine abuse.

A tide of political interest led to a new law that made pseudoephedrine - a key ingredient of meth - a prescription drug.

Previously, we looked at how this change affected meth production . Now, April Baer reports on meth addiction in the years since.

Lincoln County D.A. Rob Bovett spent a lot of time in 2005 convincing the Oregon Legislature to make pseudoephedrine harder for meth cooks to get. But he says it was never just about the street fight against drug trafficking.  

Rob Bovett  "One of the things we expanded exponentially was to not only save our existing drug courts, but to grow them into nearly every county in the state, because they're effective and powerful."

What makes drug courts so powerful? Bovett says it's one of the surest ways to divert meth users into treatment.

Maria Couch   "When was it that you were clear you needed to do something different in your life?"

It's not easy getting people who've used meth to rooms like this group session at Catholic Community Services' New Step program in Salem.

Under the haze of the fluorescent lights, program director Maria Couch is hosting a weekly therapy meeting for women.

Maria Couch  "Why don't you tell each other what you appreciate?"

The women who come here share a lot of pain, but also hope.

One of New Step's star pupils is 36-year-old Lisa Livingston. This fall, she's taking college classes and rebuilding her life, but she started using meth when she was just 14.

Lisa Livingston   "It was referred to as the poor man's coke. The high lasted longer and the price is the same."

She remembers the year Oregon created the pseudoephedrine law.

Lisa Livingston "I remember seeing it on the news and it being a topic of conversation with my using friends, and on some level I really did feel like maybe help was coming, people were catching on."

Livingston says the pseudoephedrine law wasn't a bad idea, but it hasn't really made meth less available. Her counselor, New Step Director Maria Couch, agrees she's not seeing fewer meth addicts either.

Maria Couch "I have not. I don't see that the numbers have dropped at all."

Addicts are taking advantage of meth made out of state, or meth made without pseudoephedrine at all.

The year the pseudoephedrine law was passed, 15,000 people sought treatment for meth at state-funded facilities.  Last year, that number was closer to 11,000. That's 4000 fewer people.

So did the stranglehold on meth ingredients lead to lower addiction rates? Not exactly. There were plenty of people who needed treatment for meth abuse, but didn't get it, because there wasn't enough money to pay for it.

Karen Wheeler runs Addictions Policy and Programs for the state of Oregon. She says funding for treatment of all addictions has actually dropped by tens of millions of dollars, in the years since the pseudoephedrine law was passed.

Karen Wheeler  "There's 800 people waiting to get into residential treatment right now. I can tell you that. If you’re pregnant, you’re at the top of the line. If you are an IV drug user, you're gonna get to the top of the line. If you're a pregnant IV drug user, you're going to get way to the top of the line."

But, Wheeler says, there's no prioritizing for meth abuse. Even though Oregon is known for using cutting-edge techniques  in its addiction programs, the state isn't getting those programs to everyone who needs them.