State Sen. Roger Bedford is not giving up on a bill that would limit access to the key ingredient in the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Bedford, D-Russellville, has prefiled a bill that will make pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient needed to make meth, only accessible by a prescription. He plans to introduce the bill when the 2012 legislative session begins in February.

“We tried to get this passed last year, but we couldn’t get it out of committee,” Bedford said. “I’m hopeful some of the Republican senators will get on board this year. From what I’m hearing, they will.

“I’m hearing that they have heard a lot from the district attorneys, sheriffs, police officers and drug agents in their districts about just how bad meth is and how we need this legislation.”

The bill would make pseudoephedrine and pseudoephedrine products only accessible by a doctor’s prescription. Pseudoephedrine-based medicine is largely found in cold and sinus medications and currently is available over the counter without a prescription.

“Will this totally stop meth and the manufacturing — probably not, but it will be a big help,” said Curtis Burns, director of the Colbert County Drug Task Force.

“To me it’s like baking a cake,” Hackleburg Police Chief Kenny Hallmark said. “You’ve got to have flour to make a cake; you have to have pseudoephedrine to make meth. It’s that’s simple.”

Amard Martin, director of the Lawrence County Drug Task Force, also serves on the board of the Alabama Narcotics Officers Association. He said this is something the association has been hoping to get passed for some time.

“We’re glad (Bedford) is reintroducing it,” Martin said. “We believe it’s a step in the right direction.”

The bill is similar to those recently passed in Oregon, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Burns said statistics from the states where the law is already in effect show it works.

“The number of meth labs seized has gone down once those laws were passed,” he said.

Oregon’s pseudoephedrine law went into effect in 2006, two years after more than 472 meth labs were destroyed. Since the bill passed, narcotics officials say fewer than 200 labs have been seized.

Results have been similar in Mississippi, which passed its law in July 2010.

Officials with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics said officers seized 607 labs during a nine-month period from July 2009 to February 2010, and only 203 during the first nine months after the new law went into effect.

“You can’t argue with those statistics,” Martin said. “If you can’t get the pseudoephedrine, you can’t make the meth.”

Bedford said he sent letters to the other 34 state senators telling him of his intentions and that they were welcome to co-sponsor the bill.

“I have heard back from several (Democrats and Republicans) who are interested in joining with me and helping to support this bill,” he said. “I really feel optimistic that it will pass this year, hopefully 35-0.”

Tom Smith can be reached at 256-740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.