FEDS STEP UP TO HELP BATTLE LOCAL METH WOES

Panhandle law enforcement's campaign against methamphetamine manufacture
has gotten some valuable help.

It has come in the form of two congressional measures designed to halt the
flood of pseudoephedrine to Mexican meth labs. The ingredient is critical
to the production of meth.

One measure requires the U.S. State Department to analyze imports of
pseudoephedrine by Mexico to determine its legitimate demand. The other
measure would require American officials to work with Mexican officials to
reduce the illicit smuggling of pseudophedrine.

The Panhandle sits only a stone's throw from the Mexican border and has
become a major corridor for the drugs and the ingredients critical to their
manufacture. It's no coincidence, for instance, that the Department of
Public Safety's Amarillo division leads the state in the rate of
drug-related arrests along the Interstate 40 corridor.

Meantime, Panhandle lawmen are dismantling meth labs almost daily and
arresting those suspected of engaging in this dangerous activity.

Some states, such as neighboring Oklahoma, have adopted laws regulating the
sale of pseudophedrine. Those laws provide significant help. The feds,
though, need to step up as well.

The U.S. House of Representatives has acted with dispatch to give local law
enforcement the help it needs. It's time for the Senate to follow suit.