PORTLAND, Ore. -- It's been almost ten years since you could walk into an Oregon drugstore and pick up Sudafed without a prescription.
If it contains pseudoephedrine, you need approval from a doctor. That's because the nasal decongestant also happens to be the main ingredient in methamphetamine.
The goal of locking it up was to shut down the hundreds of meth houses popping up across the state.
Portland Police Captain Mark Kruger said it worked.
"Drug houses like we knew fifteen or twenty years ago don't really exist in the same way," Kruger said.
Back when pseudoephedrine was easy to get, meth labs were easy to find. In 2003, the number of busts in Oregon neared 500. By 2013, that number had dropped to nine.
"We don't have campers driving down I-84 anymore leaking toxic chemicals out the back," said David Westfield of Lines for Life.
It hasn't stopped the meth fueled calls for help at the nonprofit though. Even though the labs are gone, meth is still here.
If anything, the problem is bigger. According to a state report, meth remains Oregon's number one drug problem.
"It's really based on the supply. The supply is massive," said Captain Kruger. "Just last year in 2015, the Drugs and Vice Division seized 298 pounds of methamphetamine."
The small local meth houses have been replaced by huge industrial level manufacturing plants in Mexico. The drugs have no problem making their way across the border and up the I-5 pipeline.
Captain Kruger says there is only so much they can do.
"This is an international problem. We've got a problem with our Southern border," said Kruger.
The number of meth arrests has doubled in Oregon in the last six years. Most of those arrests were suppliers.
But with the Mexican drug cartel working overtime, meth and the crime that comes with it are likely to remain number one in Oregon for some time.