South Bend area cops see cold med limits as partial solution in meth fight

Those who support the limits say yes, pointing to the need to end the state’s rank as America’s meth lab capital.

But statistics on meth labs in local counties show how widely the problem varies across the state. The drug has plagued small towns and working-class manufacturing hubs such as those in Elkhart County, while remaining a secondary issue in communities such as South Bend that are struggling with a growing epidemic of heroin abuse.

Local law enforcement officials have little doubt that choking off the supply of pseudoephedrine would dramatically reduce the “home-grown” product brewed in plastic bottles, but it remains unclear whether meth abuse itself would decrease, as drug cartels increasingly move imported crystal meth, known by the slang term “ice,” into the area.