Pennsylvania's anti-drug battle has another weapon as a result of legislation signed into law July 15 by Gov. Ed Rendell. The law targets manufacturers of methamphetamines with tougher penalties and gives law enforcement agencies greater tools to stop production of the deadly drug in rural areas.

The question is how much of the law's intent will actually be realized. If other anti-drug measures are a barometer, it will be successful on only a limited scale.

Still, passage of the measure must be regarded as an important accomplishment on the General Assembly's part.

The new law - Act 85 of 2004 - zeros in on illegal uses of the ingredients used to make the highly addictive stimulant drug, including anhydrous ammonia, a chemical commonly used as a fertilizer by farms. Act 85 makes it illegal to possess or transport anhydrous ammonia for any purpose other than agricultural or industrial use. It also establishes tough penalties for possessing large quantities of other methamphetamine ingredients, including the dietary supplements ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, a common decongestant found in cold medicine.

State Sen. Roger Madigan of Bradford County, who introduced the measure that ultimately was signed into law, said, "The manufacture and use of methamphetamines has become a growing problem in rural areas, and we have to respond aggressively.

"The people who make this poison use every loophole and every means to acquire the ingredients to do their dirty work. This new law will make it more difficult for them to manufacture a drug that has ruined so many lives."

The prevalence of the methamphetamine problem in Butler County has not been a subject of much public discussion in recent years amid the county's serious heroin problem. Still, this county cannot regard itself as divorced from the problem.

Law-abiding Butler County residents should be happy that this new anti-drug weapon is available for law enforcement agencies' use.