AUGUSTA – Maine’s attorney general says he plans to submit legislation designed to curb the spread of methamphetamine, a powerfully addictive drug that can be made using common household ingredients.

Attorney General G. Steven Rowe said more than 160 people in Maine were admitted for treatment of methamphetamine addiction last year.

“We already have the problem, but we don’t have the problem they have in other states – yet,” Rowe said last week. “But the wave is on the way, and we need to get ahead of the curve.”

Methamphetamine is also known as meth, speed, crystal and ice. It is described by experts as a powerfully addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It can be smoked, injected or snorted. Its use has reached epidemic proportions in parts of the country.

Methamphetamine is relatively easy to make, using common household ingredients called precursor chemicals such as drain cleaners and lantern fuel. The main component is ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, found in cold medicines that can be bought over the counter in stores.

“The bill we are proposing does not go as far as some states,” Rowe said. “But it [would] limit the availability of pseudoephedrine by moving the boxes with large quantities behind the counter where a person [would] have to ask for them.”

In some states, all cold medicines containing pseudophedrine are behind the counter regardless of the number of pills. Some states require a person to prove identity and sign for purchase of the medication.

“We are not covering the liquids or the gel caps or the single-dose packages,” Rowe said. “We are focusing on the large packages of the starch-based pills that are used in making methamphetamine.”

He said another key section of the proposal would give rulemaking authority to the state public safety commissioner to cover other substances that may come onto the market and be diverted to production of methamphetamine, which is illegal.

The medical community across the country is concerned about the increased use of a drug that once was nearly eliminated as a problem by restrictions on the sale of the chemicals used in making it. Those restrictions at the federal level were loosened over the years.

“This is a highly addictive drug that can cause serious problems for the user,” said David Mokler, a professor of pharmacology at the University of New England in Biddeford. “This drug has been and continues to be a serious problem.”

He said methamphetamine causes the brain to release high levels of dopamine, a substance that triggers the pleasure centers in the brain. Methamphetamine, he said, can cause intense pleasure that leads to addiction.

“It causes a rush or high that becomes addictive,” Mokler said. “It enhances pleasurable sensations, even though its continued use can cause serious problems for the user and can cause changes in the brain.”

In fact, researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles have studies that indicate the drug figuratively “chops off” brain tissue that takes a long time to regrow. Their studies show a frequent methamphetamine user could take months or years to recover.

Richard Rawson, associate director of the UCLA program, has been providing presentations to educators, law enforcement officials and therapists on research about the drug. He said the brain scans of longtime meth users look similar to scans of people who have had brain damage from head injuries.

“The drug is a neurotoxin that changes the way the brain works and causes destruction in parts of the brain,” he said. “It does all this damage while making a person feel really good and leads to them becoming addicted to the drug.”

Rawson and the other researchers at UCLA developed a test to measure dopamine levels in the brain. He said eating a good meal results in dopamine levels about 1.5 times above normal. Sex generates levels twice the normal level, and cocaine generates levels four times normal. But meth generates dopamine levels that are 11 times above average.

“That’s why people find it so attractive. That’s why people stop doing things like eating and going to work and switch to just using methamphetamine,” he said.

Rawson has been crossing the country, presenting his treatment and training programs.

He said the Web has helped people find the recipe for the drug and start their own meth labs.

“While you have had only a few cases in Maine of these labs, I think what has been happening across the country is now getting into your state,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop at the New Hampshire border.”

Rawson said he was in a town in eastern Oregon that has four police officers. “The police chief told me last year his officers made more arrests for methamphetamine than tickets they handed out for speeding. I hope Maine listens to your attorney general and gets ahead of the curve.”