FEDERAL METH LAW NEEDED

We commend lawmakers and our governor for creating new retail restrictions
on products that can be used to make the illegal and dangerous drug,
methamphetamine.

We believe, however, that a uniform, federal law is needed.

Gov. Matt Blunt on Wednesday signed state legislation that requires the
powder pill forms of medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine,
used to make meth, be placed behind pharmacy counters and sold only by
pharmacists and their assistants.

Under the new law, customers buying the medicines must be at least age 18,
show photo identification and sign a log that police later can review. The
restrictions do not apply to the gel cap or liquid forms of the medicines,
which are not easily transformed into meth.

Restrictions to curtail meth-making are evolving.

A number of pharmacies -- including those of some major chains -- already
have moved behind the counter medicines used to manufacturing meth.

A number of states individually also have enacted laws.

A downside, however, is that those state laws have prompted meth makers to
shop or steal elsewhere.

Missouri is believed to have suffered that downside. After our neighboring
state of Oklahoma passed a strict law, law enforcement officers here saw an
increase in seizures of meth labs. According to the Missouri Highway Patrol,
1,322 meth lab have been seized this year -- on pace for a more than 40
percent increase over last year.

As a rule, we prefer federalism, which largely favors state laws over
federal laws. The U.S. Constitution reads: "The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are
reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

But the Constitution also allows Congress "to regulate commerce among the
several states." And regulating criminals' ability to get meth-making
ingredients certainly would seem to be covered by that provision.

With regard to meth restrictions, strict state laws are prompting meth
makers simply to cross borders into states with fewer restrictions.

A federal law co-sponsored by Missouri Sen. Jim Talent now is being
considered in Congress.

Approval by Congress would make the battle against meth makers uniformly
tougher.