Meth has reared its ugly head once again in the state, and in our neighborhoods of Southwest Missouri.

As reported in the March 4 edition of the Neosho Daily News, seven people were charged in connection with a meth raid in Newton County that took place on Feb. 28.

Two days earlier, the newspaper reported via the Associated Press that 1,189 meth labs were seized in 2007, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s Web site.

And the number of busts in the second half of 2007 was greater than in the second half of 2006, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol statistics.

But this is nothing new.

After all, Missouri has led the nation in meth lab seizures every year since 2001.

Have we all become numb to the situation?

Not  Sen. Norma Champion, R-Greene County, who has proposed a bill requiring pharmacies to keep electronic records of pseudoephedrine purchases for real-time monitoring.

Pseudoephedrine is used to manufacture meth.

Champion’s bill is modeled after an Oklahoma law, which is the only state with real-time electronic monitoring.

The system allows a pharmacist to see a record of all pseudoephedrine purchases a person has made, and links all pharmacies together.

This would help pharmacists know if a person has already bought the legal limit of the drug elsewhere.

In Oklahoma, this program has been a success.

The drug problem will never go away. We are not naïve enough to believe that it will.

But, this doesn’t mean we give up on making it more difficult for drug manufacturers and sellers to do their dirty work.

Meth kills people.

Meth kills families.

Meth kills souls.

That’s why we applaud the proposed bill by Sen. Norma Champion, and agree with an official with the Missouri State Highway Patrol in his statement that we would support any legislation that would help in the fight against meth, which he called “Public Enemy No. 1.”

DAILY NEWS