Local meth labs only one battle front (Missouri)

Cutting demand must be part of the strategy.

This is a frustrating story about methamphetamine and supply and demand.
Last year, Missouri enacted a law that greatly reduced consumer access to cold pills containing pseudoephedrine, one of the ingredients in meth. Since that time, the number of meth labs in the state has dropped.

Earlier this year, Congress passed a similar law restricting the sale of similar products on a national level. This will help address one of the problems with the Missouri law, that a meth cook could cross the border and go to a state such as Arkansas that did not have such restrictive laws regarding the cold pills. The federal law is stricter than the state law passed last year and should help even more in preventing meth cooks from getting their hands on the toxic ingredients needed to make the drug.

Decreasing the number of meth labs is good for several reasons. It prevents people from getting involved in a highly dangerous endeavor. Meth labs are highly explosive and often extremely hard to clean up. They also can expose innocent bystanders, including children living in the home, to deadly fumes created during the meth-making process.

Unfortunately, for all the good the law does, demand remains for the high that meth delivers, and a steady supply remains on the street.

Call it the law of unintended consequences.

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