Meth war is far from over.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Oregon is winning the battle against home-grown methamphetamine production and the meth labs that turned homes and backyards into toxic waste sites across the state.

But the war against meth addiction itself rages on unabated across Oregon, including in Lane County.

After years of denial and delay, Oregon got serious in 2004 about confronting an epidemic that had wreaked havoc with public health and spread crime throughout the state. Gov. Ted Kulongoski ordered that products containing pseudoephedrine, the primary ingredient in the manufacture of meth, be placed behind pharmacy counters.

The next year, he signed legislation making Oregon the first state in the nation to require prescriptions for pseudoephedrine products.

The moves deprived local meth cooks of their key ingredient and helped inspire Congress to pass the federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act, which applied similar restrictions nationwide. As a result, meth labs have all but disappeared across Lane County and the rest of the state.

As The Register-Guard's Rebecca Taylor recently reported, law enforcement agencies in Lane County have uncovered only two meth labs so far this year, both dump sites or remnants of inactive labs. That's in stark contrast to 1998, when police found a record 84 labs across the county.

The same trend applies statewide, with police uncovering just 21 labs so far this year compared with a high of 587 labs in 2001.

The precipitous decline represents a major victory for Oregon. Meth labs and their highly toxic chemicals contaminated homes and took a heartbreaking toll on the health of families, in particular the young who lived in or near them.

It was no coincidence that the governor signed the 2005 meth bill at Eugene's Relief Nursery, where every one of the more than 300 parents in treatment at the nursery's drug and alcohol recovery program that year identified meth as their drug of choice.

Oregon clearly has solved its meth lab problem - and the rest of the nation benefited profoundly from its example. Yet the flow of meth into this state has not diminished - indeed, it may have actually increased - as highly organized cartels have filled the void with meth manufactured in superlabs in Mexico and Southern California.

The shift in the meth trade presents a new and formidable challenge. Instead of dealing with relatively unsophisticated "mom and pop" meth cooks and local tweaker-dealers, police now confront what law enforcement officials aptly have dubbed the "Wal-Mart of dope" - and one that's often rooted in a different country and culture.

Recent international developments, including unexpected cooperation by the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, are helping slow the flow of meth from the south. As a result, the cost of meth is soaring in the United States, while its purity has decreased, because dealers cut pure meth with other substances to boost sagging profits.

As with the elimination of meth labs, the rising cost and declining purity of meth are positive developments that can reduce addiction to what many regard as the most addictive illegal drug. But those gains have been offset partially by a resurgence of other drugs.

Oregon must intensify its fight against meth, although the effort to stem the tide of drugs from Mexico relies heavily on federal law enforcement and cooperation by the Mexican government.

In Lane County, law enforcement agencies recently began taking steps to re-establish the Lane County Interagency Narcotics Enforcement team, which was disbanded in 2003 for budgetary reasons. Under the leadership of Lane County Sheriff Russel Burger, local law enforcement agencies also are working to have the federal government declare Lane County a "High Intensity Drug Traffic Area," a designation critical to its eligibility for federal drug enforcement grants.

Lane County - and Oregon - also must find the resources to increase the prevention and treatment services that are by far the most cost-effective way of combatting meth. The county repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to raise taxes to pay for a comprehensive anti-meth strategy that would have provided the revenues needed to reopen jail cells, put deputies in rural areas, treat addicts and rescue youth from meth's deadly cycle of addiction and crime. Despite those setbacks, county officials must continue fighting meth addiction through creative strategies such as the restoration of the regional narcotics enforcement team and aggressive pursuit of federal funding.

At the national, state and local levels, officials must continue to fight the good fight that only recently began in earnest but that already is yielding some impressive results.