"I will pursue every remedy at our disposal including working with local and federal officials to eradicate meth labs and bring those who are responsible for these illegal operations to justice."

One of the biggest challenges facing Missouri law enforcement is the illegal manufacture of methamphetamines. Methamphetamines are addictive, a serious health risk, and promote erratic and violent behavior, and the illegal manufacture of "meth" has been responsible for injuries to fire and law enforcement officials and innocent bystanders when these makeshift facilities have exploded and caught fire. The toxic chemicals needed to produce the drugs also are typically not disposed of properly and pose an additional risk to the environment.

During 2006, Missouri law enforcement seized 1,284 laboratories, down from a record 2,860 seized in 2003. This was a result of new tougher laws and increased funding for law enforcement passed by the Missouri legislature. Missouri has turned the tide against meth producers, but we can do more to protect our communities from this deadly drug.

As attorney general, I will pursue every remedy at our disposal including working with local and federal officials to eradicate meth labs and bring those who are responsible for these illegal operations to justice.

MethAlert: The best way to continue to reduce methamphetamine use is to keep the ingredients needed to manufacture the drug out of the hands of criminals. Missouri limits the purchase of pseudoephedrine, a major ingredient of any meth operation found in over-the-counter cold medicines, to 9 grams every 30 days. Purchasers are required to sign a log book with their name and address with every purchase. These log books are valuable to law enforcement, but require a great deal of man hours to track the purchases. Law enforcement must travel to all the participating pharmacies and copy the written logs before returning to their office review the data for suspicious purchases. This process can take days.

But new technology is leading the way in this fight. Pharmacies are now able to post these log books online for law enforcement to track in real time. What takes days can take just minutes when law enforcement can go online to track pseudoephedrine purchases.

One example of this technology is MethCheck LE. MethCheck provides automated tools that give law enforcement the ability to monitor suspicious buying patterns and to "watch" specific individuals who exceed the legal limits imposed by Federal or state law. In 2005, Kentucky implemented the first electronic log using MethCheck in one county. In the first year of the pilot program, Kentucky law enforcement charged 22 people with purchasing more than the legal limit of pseudoephedrine. Sixteen of these 22 were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine. The program also helped locate purchases made by 26 people involved in a methamphetamine manufacturing conspiracy case. This technology now has been used successfully in counties all over the country, and should be a major tool for Missouri law enforcement in our fight on meth.

I introduced HB 1489 [1] this session to enact a methamphetamine tracking program. As your attorney general, I will work with law enforcement, Missouri pharmacists, and the legislature to develop and fund a statewide program to put pharmacy log books online to track the purchase of pseudoephedrine. This will simplify pseudoephedrine tracking for pharmacists and help law enforcement keep pseudoephedrine out of the hands of those who would do harm to our families and communities.

Meth may be a major challenge facing Missourians, but we also need to remain vigilant against the trafficking of other harmful substances. In addition to supporting measures specifically combatting methamphetamines, I will continue to push for more funding for local drug task forces.