As Michael Krauss noted last month, trial lawyers around the country have been pushing the idea that because small-time operators often purchase common over-the-counter drugs such as decongestants as ingredients which they they process into methamphetamine, major drug companies should be held financially liable for the economic costs of meth abuse. It hasn't taken long to get the first state attorney general to jump in on their side: according to the AP, Minnesota's Mike Hatch has just proposed "going after big pharmaceutical manufacturers to recover the government's costs for meth-related problems".

Hatch said he's working on a lawsuit against about six large companies that make products containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine -- active ingredients in cold medicines like Sudafed that are broken down by meth cooks.... Hatch is also pitching legislation to hold pseudoephedrine makers liable for damages caused by meth labs. The bill would be modeled on a 1994 landfill cleanup law that allowed the state to sue polluters' insurance companies to recover its costs.