Meth in the crosshairs.

Byline: The Register-Guard

After years of denial and delay, Oregon has finally gotten serious about confronting a methamphetamine epidemic that has wreaked havoc with public health and spread crime throughout this state for far too many years.

Oregon's arrival on the front lines of the war against meth is welcome and long overdue. Meth has become the dominant drug problem in Lane County and across the state, and is inextricably linked to increases in robberies, burglaries, domestic violence, assaults and identity thefts. With sickening regularity, meth is responsible for the abuse, neglect and, yes, the deaths of children.

On Tuesday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski visited the Relief Nursery in Eugene, where he signed legislation that will make Oregon the first state to require prescriptions for products containing pseudoephedrine, a decongestant found in many over-the-counter cold and allergy treatments which is the key ingredient in the manufacture of meth. The governor also signed bills that stiffen penalties for meth crimes, increase funding for enforcement and allocate more money for drug court treatment programs

Kulongoski could not have picked a more suitable setting. In the past year, every single one of the more than 300 parents in treatment at the nursery's drug and alcohol recovery program identified meth as their drug of choice.

As Oregon intensifies its fight against meth, state and local governments must be prepared to take whatever additional steps are necessary. Elected officials from across Lane County are putting the finishing touches on a promising anti-meth strategy that will ask voters to approve new revenues needed to reopen jail cells, put deputies in rural areas, treat addicts and help rescue youth from meth's deadly cycle of addiction and crime.

Officials must also be prepared to reconsider strategies that either aren't working or that have undesirable consequences. The governor and state lawmakers should keep a close eye on the new law requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine products.

This newspaper opposed the prescription proposal in the Legislature for several reasons, including the impressive gains that already had been realized after the governor last fall ordered that the cold remedies be placed behind pharmacy coun- ters. As a result, small meth lab busts declined by nearly 50 percent across the state.

At the time, it seemed doubtful that requiring prescriptions for cold medicines would have a significant further effect. Those doubts haven't faded. The prescription requirement will also cause unnecessary inconvenience for many Oregonians - and a particular hardship on low-income citizens for whom access to effective cold medicines can make the difference between going to work or staying home sick.

The governor correctly notes that the pharmaceutical industry already is marketing a new generation of nonprescription medicines that don't contain pseudoephedrines. But manufacturers and doctors concede some of those products are less effective than their pseudoephedrine counterparts in treating colds and allergies. Newer medicines may also have side effects that cause problems for some users.

More importantly, requiring prescriptions will have zero impact on the flow of meth that is manufactured in Mexico's superlabs and smuggled across the border. That will require legislative and diplomatic action by Congress and the Bush administration to force Mexico to crack down on meth traffickers.

Federal lawmakers should start by approving a bill currently pending that would require the U.S. State Department to track the world's biggest exporters and importers of pseudoephedrine and to withhold foreign aid from countries that refuse to cooperate in curbing the meth trade.

At the national, state and local levels, officials must continue to wage the good fight that only recently has begun in earnest, while standing ready to take further action - and to fix any and all strategies that aren't working.