Mass production of meta-amphetamine still biggest problem for drug police

The mass production of meta-amphetamine in illegal laboratories remains the biggest single problem faced by the Czech police when it comes to drug crime. The head of the police’s anti-drug force, Jakub Frydrych, told reporters on Tuesday the situation was partly caused by the availability of over-the-counter medicines containing pseudo-ephedrine, which is used to make meta-amphetamine. Mr Frydrych said the Czech Republic continued to be Europe’s biggest producer of the drug; he added that the difficulty of securing convictions was a bigger issue than the actual number of illegal labs. Last year 314 labs were uncovered by the police; in 2008 the figure was 434.