Over the last three months, there’s been a 75-and-a-half percent drop in the number of clandestine meth labs found in the state. Governor Tom Vilsack revealed the numbers this (Monday) morning during a statehouse news conference.In May, June and July of last year, there were two-hundred-86 meth lab busts in Iowa. During the same three months this year, preliminary figures indicate there were only 70 meth labs discovered in the state. Vilsack says that means Iowa’s law should be a model for the nation, despite objections from major national retailers like Wal-Mart that’re asking Congress for a weaker, uniform, national standard. “No matter how much the profit-mode may generate concern about this law, the reality is this law is working…and if there are fewer labs, then the supply is diminished…and fewer young people are going to be exposed to this dangerous drug,” Vilsack says. “I mean it is absolutely an extraordinary poison.” About 80 percent of the meth that’s used in Iowa is brought in from out-of-state, but Marshall County Sheriff Ted Kamatchus says shutting down meth-making labs within the state’s borders helps what he considers the “hard-core” addicts. Kamatchus says those addicts make meth for themselves and then “divy” out small portions to others, who get hooked, too. “If we can take that bite out of it…of course it’s going to lower some of the usage of (meth),” he says. Vilsack says the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has endorsed a bill that would let Iowa’s law stand, but it’s early in the process and things could change. “I’m fine with a federal law so long as it’s as strong or stronger than the state law, but at this point in time, I’m not assured of that, so let my law alone,” Iowa’s governor says. “Let me continue to have the kind of results that we’re having.” Kamatchus, the president-elect of the National Sheriff’s Association, is lobbying Congress to pass a meth bill that is no weaker than Iowa’s new law restricting access to ingredients to the drug. “If (Congress) were to pass the Iowa law, then I think we would see no problems,” Kamatchus says. “I think it goes beyond that. I think it’s, personally, almost a states’ rights issue, about preempting state government.” Iowa’s new anti-meth law went into effect in May, putting products that contain pseudoephedrine — a main ingredient in meth — behind the counter. It forces people to sign a log and show an I.D. to purchase common over-the-counter medications like Sudafed. Kamatchus says Iowa’s law is working and shouldn’t be derailed by a weaker federal law. “One of the things that I like to do as I travel across this country is remind the political powers in Washington that many of them became successful coining the phrase ‘war on drugs,'” he says. “Well, this is just one of the many battles.” The National Sheriff’s Association Kamatchus now heads has 25-thousand members nationwide. “We have to remain vigilant. We have to monitor this because there’s an effort out there to have the federal government control this effort,” Kamatchus says. “If that happens, we’re really concerned about the effect it’ll have here in Iowa and elsewhere.”