Drug spreads from Valley, state to threaten the entire nation.

Methamphetamine has become the No. 1 drug problem in a vast swath of the nation, according to a new survey of county sheriffs across the country.

That's hardly a news flash here in the Valley, but there may be a silver lining of sorts in the ugly cloud of toxic waste and human destruction meth casts over the communities where it proliferates.

Now that the problem has clearly become a national one, various efforts to combat the drug may be stepped up. That's surely good news for the Valley, once the undisputed center of national meth manufacture and still home to a huge fraction of the problem.

In the survey of 500 counties by the National Association of Counties, some 58% of sheriffs said that meth is their top concern. It was followed by cocaine (in 19% of counties) and marijuana (17%).

Meth was found to be involved in an increasing number — sometimes a large majority — of crimes such as robberies and burglaries, assault and domestic violence. The news contained in the survey may drive funding for meth eradication efforts to a new level, which would be helpful. Beyond the human misery the drug causes to users and those around them, there is a high cost to the environment from the toxic wastes produced in the manufacture of the drug. Cleaning up those messes isn't cheap, and the cost is beyond the ability of most communities to bear.

The survey should also — we hope it will — boost support in Congress for a bill by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Talent, R-Mo., that would require cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, an important ingredient in meth production, to be sold from behind the counter at drug stores.

The bill also would limit the quantity of such medicines that any individual could purchase in a month.

It isn't likely that meth will ever be eliminated entirely, but we can — we must — reduce its reach and limit the horrible damage it does to people and communities.