If you’ve purchased cold pills with pseudoephedrine in them at any time over the past several years, you’re no doubt aware that it’s a more difficult process than it used to be.

You also probably know that you can’t purchase such pills at nearly as many places as you once could, and that you can no longer run out and buy them in the middle of the night if you get sick then.

The intent behind placing tighter controls on sales of pseudoephedrine, or PSE, was obviously to slow the illegal production of the deadly and highly addictive drug for which PSE is a precursor — methamphetamine.

And, it seemed to work — for awhile.

According to a report released on Thursday by the Kentucky State Police, the number of meth labs discovered in Kentucky fell dramatically in 2005, after the law that allowed PSE tablets to be sold only at pharmacy counters went into effect.

The number continued to drop for the next three years. Then, in 2008, the state moved to regulate PSE sales even more closely by implementing an electronic tracking system for PSE sales at pharmacies known as Meth Check.

And the result of that was ... a startling increase in meth production.

Last year, law enforcement officers found 716 meth labs in the commonwealth, a 60 percent increase from the previous year’s total and the most in the state’s history, the KSP said. That number far eclipsed the previous record of 600, which was set in 2004.

The KSP said a newer, more efficient means of cooking meth known as the “one-pot” or “shake-and-bake” method is at least partly to blame for the increase.

The number also would seem to be a fairly strong indicator that meth cooks have found work-arounds for the laws that are intended to limit access to PSE.

Now, some are saying those laws need to be kicked up a couple more notches.

The Kentucky Narcotics Officers’ Association has proposed legislation that would make cold medications containing PSE be made available by prescription only.

In its report, the KSP noted that the state of Oregon has done just that, and that meth lab incidents have since dropped from more than 400 per year to fewer than 20.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about that idea.

On one hand, I’m obviously in favor of doing all that can be done to keep PSE out of the hands of those who use it for nefarious purposes.

Meth is a horrible, ravaging drug, one that wreaks devastating consequences on communities. It fills jails, clogs court dockets, rips families apart and endangers children.

And the nearly $1.4 million the KSP said was used to clean up meth labs last year was your money and mine, folks Clearly, this is everyone’s problem.

On the other hand, requiring cold-sufferers to obtain their doctors’ permission to buy medication they can now purchase over the counter seems overly draconian.

Then there’s additional hassle and misery that such a law would create for people with a legitimate need for medications with PSE — such as having to schedule a doctor’s appointment, miss work, wait in line to get their scripts filled, et cetera and ad infinitum.

And, as the current painkiller epidemic has vividly illustrated, requiring prescriptions is by no means a sure-fire means for preventing drug abusers and drug dealers from obtaining narcotics.

It’s always a shame when law-abiding citizens have to suffer because of the sins of a few.

I just wish we could turn back the clock to a time when we didn’t have to worry about this sort of thing.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.