The debate over how to deal with methamphetamine abuse is heating up, so I want address some critical misunderstandings that have arisen in local and national news coverage. This is an important issue for all Missourians regardless of where you live because the policies being discussed have far-reaching and negative implications for all of us.

The facts surrounding the issue should be available to all of us so that we can encourage our elected officials to make their decisions based on sound information, not hearsay and anecdotes.

There is no disagreement that drug abuse — and specifically meth — is a problem in Missouri. However, recent national media reports have carried quotes that indicate meth is a pervasive problem in every corner of our state. In fact, there are 17 counties in Missouri that reported zero meth lab incidents through October 2011. And, there are dozens of counties that have as few as one meth lab incident.

The truth is that the meth problem has statistically been a big problem in a handful of counties. The "broad-brush" label is inaccurate and misleading and damages the reputation of our great state.

Also, an overreaching policy approach to the meth crisis will not serve us well either. While some counties have implemented a prescription requirement for products containing pseudoephedrine (or PSE), a statewide requirement continues to be discussed in Jefferson City. This extreme approach would be harmful to the millions of Missourians who suffer from allergies and rely on over-the-counter medicines containing pseudoephedrine (PSE) as an economical and effective way to treat their symptoms.

For Missourians with seasonal allergies, these safe and popular products have been life-changing and requiring a prescription for them will block access to Missourians, many of whom do not have insurance, and will increase costs for everyone else.

For law-abiding citizens with common colds, a prescription requirement would force them to make a doctor's appointment, take time off from work and then go pick up the prescription. The lost time is irreplaceable and the increased costs — through lost wages and productivity, office visit fees, prescription co-pays — would be exorbitant, particularly since those affected have broken no laws and done nothing wrong.

But for everyone else in the state, the price of health care would increase as the burden of the mandate would fall on health care providers and costs would be passed on to employers and eventually employees, wait times for appointments for the truly sick would increase. Also, Medicaid costs would go up as fees escalate and the state loses sales tax dollars from the over-the-counter purchases that are not assessed on prescriptions. These consequences are too severe when more appropriate and effective solutions exist.

A rational yet effective alternative entails enforcing federal purchase laws through a real-time, stop-sale system. For about a year, Missouri has been participating in the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx), electronic technology that tells clerks in a retail store or pharmacy if a person is attempting to purchase a product containing PSE that exceeds the legal limit and immediately blocks the sale.

In some states, the laws ensure those who have been prosecuted for meth-related offenses are unable to purchase these safe and effective products without a doctor's prescription. Furthermore, information on sales and attempted sales are collected for law enforcement to prosecute criminals using these reliable medications containing PSE to illegally make and distribute meth. In the short time the real-time, stop-sale system has been up and running in Missouri, it has blocked thousands of illegal sales each month. This law enforcement-focused approach is a much more reasonable and appropriate approach to the meth problem in our state.

We know that prescription mandates are an extreme approach and do not have the desired results some claim they do. For instance, in Oregon, where a prescription requirement has been in place for years and is often pointed to as a panacea among those who support the policy, more than 80 percent of law enforcement has said meth was the area's "greatest drug threat." Also, an official threat assessment and counter-drug strategy report shows meth use is high and available and widely used in Oregon.

I urge our policymakers in Jefferson City to give electronic technology time to work. Once they are armed with all the facts, I am confident that they will agree that a prescription requirement does more harm than good. In the end, we must develop policies that stem the tide of meth abuse, and punish criminals, not Missouri workers and families.

Joy Krieger is executive director of the St. Louis Chapter of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation.