The Pew Charitable Trusts

Common cold and allergy medicines such as Sudafed and Claritin will require a doctor's prescription in Missouri if a proposal backed by Governor Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster becomes law. The two Democrats announced their support for the proposal in a press conference Tuesday (December 1), calling it the surest way to combat the production of methamphetamine. 

Meth production and abuse has been a major policy concern for state governments over much of the last decade, as teens and others have become addicted to the drug, leading to crime sprees and serious health repercussions. The prescription plan supported by Nixon and Koster has been gaining traction because the key ingredient in making meth, pseudoephedrine, is found in many cold and allergy medicines that meth manufacturers purchase in bulk.

" This deadly drug cannot be allowed to fester in Missouri. We have already enacted several measures to fight meth, but it's time to take this significant next step, " Nixon said in a statement, according to The Post-Dispatch of St. Louis .

Only two other states, Oregon and Mississippi, have gone so far as to require a prescription for Sudafed and other medicines that contain pseudoephedrine. But Oregon, in particular, has seen a dramatic decline in the number of meth labs it has discovered in the five years since it passed its law, as Stateline reported earlier this year . Monthly meth lab seizures in Oregon have declined 96 percent, and a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency told Stateline in March that "it is fairly hard to argue with the success of the Oregon model."

Anti-meth proposals such as the one in Missouri face substantial opposition from the pharmaceuticals industry, which stands to lose significant sums of money if some of its best-known products are made prescription-only. The industry has been actively pushing an alternative to curtail meth production: setting up electronic tracking systems that would help law enforcement keep tabs of who is buying certain medicines — and how much.