If cold medicine is outlawed, only outlaws will have cold medicine, part two

Iowa has implented tough restrictions on the sale of over-the-counter cold medicine that can be used in the production of methamphetamine. Meth problem solved, right? Wrong. Turns out that people are buying more potent crystal meth smuggled in from Mexico. The best part? It's more expensive, so home burglaries are up as addicts try to steal to pay for their next high.

"Our burglaries have just skyrocketed," said Jerry Furness, who represents Buchanan County, 150 miles northeast of Des Moines, on the Iowa drug task force. "The state asks how the decrease in meth labs has reduced danger to citizens, and it has, as far as potential explosions. But we've had a lot of burglaries where the occupants are home at the time, and that's probably more of a risk. So it's kind of evening out."

When the state surveyed the children in state protection in southeastern Iowa four months after the law took effect, it found that 49 percent were taken from parents who had been using methamphetamine, the same percentage as two years earlier, even as police said they were removing fewer children from homes with laboratories.

So while law-abiding citizens have a tougher time buying a legal drug, meth users face a greater risk of overdose and become more likely to commit crimes to feed their habit. Well done.

(See part one.)