FIGHTING THE METH EPIDEMIC

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says a law requiring shoppers
to show identification to buy cold pills has had a big impact on the
production of methamphetamine.

Stenehjem said last week that since the law took effect June 1, authorities
have found 23 meth labs, a 64 percent drop in the number of labs that were
discovered during the same three-month time period from last year. In
August 2004, law officers broke up 16 meth labs. In August 2005, police
found only four such facilities.

The law passed by the 2005 Legislature requires merchants who sell cold
pills containing pseudoephedrine to ask customers for identification, and
write down the buyer's name, address, birth date and drivers license
number. Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient used in making meth.

Other states, including Iowa, have recorded similar drops in the number of
meth labs when they adopted laws like the one North Dakota approved this year.

Stenehjem said small meth labs make up only about 15 percent of the drug's
supply from North Dakota, but cleaning up the toxic sites of meth labs
takes lots of time and a lot of money. So even though the small labs aren't
a big percentage of the meth problem, it's still obviously a good thing
that fewer labs are being found.

Stenehjem was a big supporter of the new restrictive law, and with good
reason. It's working.