Fighting meth

Missouri law enforcement officials are taking notice of an Oklahoma law that seems to have curbed the sale of ephedrine, an ingredient in the drug methamphetamine.

Officials in Southeast Missouri like the law because it is proactive and works to take the meth-making ingredients out of the hands of illegal drug makers. And since Missouri is flooded with meth labs, officials are always looking for ways to curb illegal drug activity.

The Cape Girardeau County sheriff wants the Missouri Legislature to draft a measure similar to Oklahoma's bill that would require pharmacies to put products with ephedrine behind the counter and create a register of customers who purchase such products.

In Oklahoma, the law requires customers who want to buy cold medicine with ephedrine to sign a register and show identification. Retail outlets other than pharmacies would have to have a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration and follow the same rules if they wished to sell products with ephedrine. Customers who make the ephedrine purchases have their transaction recorded in a database and tracked so meth makers can't just hop from one pharmacy to the next to make purchases.

But even that good idea seems like it has some limitations. There's been no explanation of how the database might be maintained or by whom.

Already in Missouri, there is a limit to the number of products with ephedrine a single person can buy and most retail stores and pharmacies keep ephedrine products either behind a pharmacy counter or in a locked case.

It's true that Missouri must do something to control its methamphetamine problem. And while a state registry of customers might help cut sales of drug-making ingredients, it could also be construed as Big Brother watching over us.

Any effort to curb the drug-making and drug-selling industry has to be done with education and community efforts. The idea of a ephedrine registry needs to be carefully considered before implementation.