The state recently passed a law placing restrictions on sale of products containing pseudoephedrine, including store display regulations and an age limit for purchasers.

Officials say the new law could lead to the incarceration of as many as 400 offenders who otherwise might have entered treatment programs, possibly causing the already excessive prison population to double within twenty years and leading some to speculate the need for an additional prison.

“We’re sitting at 134 percent of capacity right now,” said Steve King, spokesperson for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. The population, however, will only become out of control “if you take everything in the worst-case scenario; no prosecutorial discretion, etcetera,” said King. According to Lancaster County Judge Karen Flowers, prosecutors still have discretion on charges, meaning they can choose to charge defendants as users of methamphetamine, rather than dealers or manufacturers.

After plans for a new $70 million prison were approved in 1997, state legislatures called for a study to examine alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders, and later formed the Community Corrections Council. "But the Legislature has said this problem is so severe they don’t trust it to community corrections, and we have to accept that," said John Icenogle, district court judge for Buffalo and Hall counties. "The philosophy of incarceration being a significant solution to the problem is obviously contrary to community corrections being a solution."

The push for harsher sentencing is part of a "'get tough on crime' message coming down from the governor's office and State Patrol," said Senator Dwite Pederson of Elkhorn, a substance abuse counselor.

The new law could reduce meth production, and thereby reduce meth-related arrests, said a spokesman for Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman. Some say, therefore, that the alarm is premature and the bill’s effects on the population in local prisons cannot yet be determined.