Pubdate: Sun, 22 Aug 2004 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) 2204dnedimeth.36f75.html Copyright: 2004 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 METHBUSTERS: SIMPLE LAWS RESTRICT SUPPLY FOR LABS The report from Texas' Red River country is alarming. Methamphetamine addicts are crossing the border from Oklahoma to buy ingredients needed to cook their illicit drug. It has to do with a new law in the Sooner State that requires pharmacies and Wal-Marts alike to put common cold medicines like Sudafed behind the counter. These drugs contain a compound used to produce meth in hundreds of small, mobile drug labs. Buyers of cold medicines in Oklahoma now have to show a driver's license and sign for the purchase - and they still may not possess more than nine grams at a time. The clampdown has had a dramatic impact: Meth lab busts have fallen from about 100 a month to fewer than 50, authorities there report. Oklahoma's success poses two questions for Texas: First, how can we cease being the source of raw materials for another state's meth labs, and, second, what is the depth of our own problem with this super stimulant? State Rep. Leo Berman of Tyler is working with state and federal agencies to craft a law to put cold medicines out of reach in Texas, too. If it passes as an emergency measure in Austin, as it should, Texas would join Oklahoma and a half-dozen other states next year in using the tactic to fight rampant meth production. Consider that more than 2,500 meth labs have been broken up in Texas since 2000, according to state statistics. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says methamphetamine is linked to psychotic behavior and brain damage. Law enforcement agencies report that meth use is growing in the cities and widespread across small-town and rural Texas, where users have become expert in producing the drug. For these reasons we applaud the 3-week-old Methbusters program by the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Texas, which covers much of the Piney Woods as well as Collin and some Red River counties. The Drug Enforcement Administration and other state and local agencies also are involved. Oklahomans named their new law in honor of three state troopers who died in meth-related incidents, including a trooper shot by a former firefighter who was cooking the drug on the side of the road. It's heartening that officials in Texas did not await this kind of tragedy to step up the fight against the corrosive drug. The scourge of thousands of meth users is enough of a tragedy. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh