FOLLOW OKLAHOMA'S LEAD

A different kind of customer began frequenting convenience stores and
supermarkets in southern Kansas last year.

They pulled up in vehicles with Oklahoma plates. Dissipated and
bleary-eyed, they headed straight for the aisles where cold and
allergy products were sold. But it didn't take clerks long to figure
out the new clientele was ailing from more than stuffy noses.

Frustrated by an Oklahoma law that limits sales of over-the-counter
products used as ingredients in methamphetamine, addicts have been
traveling north to make the purchases. They have caused problems for
retailers and law enforcement agencies.

The cross-border purchases are all the more reason why Kansas -- and
Missouri -- should follow Oklahoma's lead by controlling sales of pill
forms of pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that has been misused by meth
manufacturers.

Bills in both state legislatures, modeled after the Oklahoma law, call
for pseudoephedrine pills to be moved off the shelves and behind the
pharmacy counter. Customers wouldn't need a prescription but would
have to produce photo identification and sign a form documenting the
quantity obtained.

Retailers could still sell liquid or geltab forms of pseudoephedrine
products on their shelves. Those forms are not as easily converted to
meth use as the pills. And decongestants that don't contain
pseudoephedrine would be excluded from the law.

Based on Oklahoma's experience, the results of controlling sales are
worth a degree of inconvenience for customers and pharmacists.

Police there have reported an 80 percent decrease in meth labs since
the law took effect. And retailers have noticed a marked decrease in
thefts of cold products.

Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska are among the two dozen states considering
new laws patterned after Oklahoma's. Passage of legislation in
bordering states will make it imperative for Missouri and Kansas to
act quickly -- or risk becoming havens for meth cookers.