San Diego County, once dubbed the methamphetamine capital of the world, continues to have a major problem with this killer drug. And part of the problem is right out there for all to see, among the cold and flu remedies on the shelves of the local grocery store or pharmacy.

Many of those over-the-counter medicines – more than 100 of them – contain an ingredient called pseudoephedrine. It's one of the ingredients that helps make you feel better. It's also one of the key ingredients, or precursors, of methamphetamine, an illegal, highly addictive and highly destructive drug that can be "cooked" in any home or garage or even the trunk of a car and then snorted, smoked, injected or ingested in pill form.

Meth has increasingly become the drug of choice in America. And the drug of tragedy. Kristin Rossum, the "American Beauty" convicted of killing her husband here in November 2002, was a meth addict. Shawn Nelson had meth in his system when he rampaged through Kearny Mesa in a stolen tank in 1995. Cameron Taylor was said to be suffering a meth-induced psychosis when he hijacked a bus at knifepoint in 1997. Ivan and Veronica Gonzales, convicted of scalding their 4-year-old niece to death in their Chula Vista apartment in 1995, were both meth addicts. They are now on Death Row.

According to preliminary figures assembled by the county's Methamphetamine Strike Force, there were 206 deaths due to meth in the county last year. That's up significantly from the 150 meth-related deaths in 1995.

The figures also show that 43 percent of adults arrested in the county last year tested positive for meth, as did 12 percent of juveniles. The figures also show that law enforcement is at best treading water in the battle against methamphetamine. More tools are needed in the law enforcement arsenal.

Much of the meth consumed here and elsewhere in California is manufactured in Mexico and smuggled across the border. Much of it is also manufactured here, using pseudoephedrine smuggled across the border in large quantities. But much of the meth cooked in small "mom-and-pop labs" in homes and garages is made with pseudoephedrine taken from over-the-counter products on pharmacy and store shelves.

That is why the state Legislature several years ago imposed a limit of nine grams of pseudoephedrine product that can be purchased at any one time by any individual. And that is why some major retail chains, including Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, Longs Drugs and Albertsons, are voluntarily planning to move all such products to the pharmacy shelves.

Good efforts. But not enough. A tougher, more uniform policy, applied nationwide, is needed. U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Talent, R-Mo., have teamed to introduce legislation that would require all stores selling pseudoephedrine products to stock them behind the counter, to limit sales to individuals to 7.5 grams per month and to require consumers to provide identification and a signature to buy them.

The Feinstein-Talent legislation would mean a minor inconvenience for consumers. But it would give law enforcement one of those badly needed tools.