FIGHT AGAINST METH DESERVES OUR PRIORITY

With great fanfare, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved legislation
to restrict over-the-counter sale of cold remedies used to make
methamphetamine. News of the Senate vote may have given readers in
the Pacific Northwest and a large number of other states a sense of deja vu.

Oregon has already done this --- and one better. Last month, Oregon
became the first state in the nation to require a prescription for
the purchase of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the key
ingredient for the manufacture of meth.

Washington imposed restrictions on over-the-counter sales of these
medicines in the state last spring. More than a year before that,
Oklahoma approved a bill that became the model for subsequent bills
in many other states, including Washington.

None of this is to say the Senate-approved legislation has no value.
We welcome the prospect of nationwide restrictions of
over-the-counter sales of these medicines. A piecemeal,
state-by-state approach leaves would-be meth manufacturers too many
options. But a federal government that was a little quicker on its
feet would be a more productive partner in the states' efforts to
combat this drug.

In truth, the federal government has lagged far behind state and
county governments both in recognizing the problem methamphetamine
abuse poses and responding to it.

Until very recently, officials at the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy insisted that marijuana was the drug that posed
the biggest threat to the nation. This was the official line even as
alarms were sounding in virtually every state over an explosion of
meth abuse and related crime.

The office as come around of late, persuaded by pleas from state
capitols and surveys showing local and state law enforcement agencies
all consider meth to be their biggest problem. But federal funding
has yet to follow, which is why this and other communities are moving
ahead with local tax proposals to combat epidemic meth abuse.
Incredibly, the new federal budget still proposes to cut more than
$800 million from the assistance it has provided local law
enforcement to combat illegal drug use.

Budgets are stretched by the continuing costs of operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan and now the prospect of spending tens of billions of
federal tax dollars to help the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane
Katrina. But the fight against meth abuse deserves some priority.

We like Arizona Sen. John McCain's proposal for helping to fund the
hurricane recovery effort --- give back some the pork approved
earlier as part of the massive federal transportation bill. There's
more than enough pork there to help states and counties fight meth
abuse, as well.