METHBUSTERS: SIMPLE LAWS RESTRICT SUPPLY FOR LABS

The report from Texas' Red River country is alarming. Methamphetamine
addicts are crossing the border from Oklahoma to buy ingredients needed to
cook their illicit drug.

It has to do with a new law in the Sooner State that requires pharmacies and
Wal-Marts alike to put common cold medicines like Sudafed behind the
counter. These drugs contain a compound used to produce meth in hundreds of
small, mobile drug labs.

Buyers of cold medicines in Oklahoma now have to show a driver's license and
sign for the purchase - and they still may not possess more than nine grams
at a time. The clampdown has had a dramatic impact: Meth lab busts have
fallen from about 100 a month to fewer than 50, authorities there report.

Oklahoma's success poses two questions for Texas: First, how can we cease
being the source of raw materials for another state's meth labs, and,
second, what is the depth of our own problem with this super stimulant?

State Rep. Leo Berman of Tyler is working with state and federal agencies to
craft a law to put cold medicines out of reach in Texas, too. If it passes
as an emergency measure in Austin, as it should, Texas would join Oklahoma
and a half-dozen other states next year in using the tactic to fight rampant
meth production.

Consider that more than 2,500 meth labs have been broken up in Texas since
2000, according to state statistics.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says methamphetamine is linked to
psychotic behavior and brain damage. Law enforcement agencies report that
meth use is growing in the cities and widespread across small-town and rural
Texas, where users have become expert in producing the drug.

For these reasons we applaud the 3-week-old Methbusters program by the U.S.
attorney's office for the Eastern District of Texas, which covers much of
the Piney Woods as well as Collin and some Red River counties. The Drug
Enforcement Administration and other state and local agencies also are
involved.

Oklahomans named their new law in honor of three state troopers who died in
meth-related incidents, including a trooper shot by a former firefighter who
was cooking the drug on the side of the road.

It's heartening that officials in Texas did not await this kind of tragedy
to step up the fight against the corrosive drug. The scourge of thousands of
meth users is enough of a tragedy.