ST. LOUIS - The fire hoses had been rolled up. The 11-year-old burn victim was at the hospital. And Jefferson County's Sgt. Gary Higginbotham was left shaking his head as he surveyed the scene of the methamphetamine lab explosion.

He knew that, in other states, authorities could have quickly caught the Festus, Mo., homeowners' illegal purchases of a key ingredient to make meth.

But not here not in the heart of America's fight against meth labs.

Missouri has long led the nation in meth lab busts. Illinois hasn't been far behind. Yet neither state has adopted stricter laws for obtaining meth's key ingredient, pseudoephedrine. Those tougher approaches are credited with helping some states, like Oklahoma and Kentucky, record big declines of meth labs.

In Missouri and Illinois, addicts only have to sign paper logs that often are too cumbersome for police to check. Missouri is set to strengthen oversight, but police worry meth cooks will cross state lines to buy supplies.

"I shudder to think what people are going to say 20 years from now as to why we didn't eliminate this problem," said Missouri Rep. Jeff Roorda, who is pushing for a tougher law.

Awaiting reform, Higginbotham and other Jefferson County officers have struggled to keep up with a list of who exceeds the purchase limit.

Higginbotham led the county's drug unit when Congress passed a 2005 law limiting pseudoephedrine purchases to 9 grams every 30 days. That's roughly two 15-dose boxes of 24-hour Claritin D or six 24-dose boxes of Sudafed.

Missouri and Illinois then passed laws authorizing only licensed pharmacies to sell the products. Anyone buying pseudoephedrine products had to show ID and sign paper logs kept at pharmacy counters.

Lists sit unchecked

Elected leaders from both states touted the laws as the panacea to the mom-and-pop meth labs, and the laws did help. From 2005 through 2007, Missouri's lab totals were nearly halved. Illinois' dropped about 60 percent.

But Missouri still ended 2007 with 1,189 busts - more than double any other state's. Illinois was fourth with 342.

Higginbotham said the new laws initially confused pill shoppers, commonly called "smurfers," who buy for meth makers. But they've adapted.

"They just go from store to store to buy pills," he said.

Jefferson County found 218 meth labs last year, the most in Missouri and more than 27 states combined.

"For anyone who doesn't believe meth is still around, saddle up and ride with us," said Cpl. David Curtis, who succeeded Higginbotham as head of the drug unit. "We'll show you."

Sheriff Oliver "Glenn" Boyer doesn't think the meth problem is worse there, just that his department focuses on finding labs. But even with eight detectives assigned to hunt meth labs, officers struggle to find time to collect and analyze the log books from the county's 33 pharmacies.

The list is about 2½ months behind and 100 names long.

Illinois State Police said the same problem exist there.

Detectives say their time is better spent following tips, making undercover buys and impromptu visits to suspected meth makers.

Databases deliver

But pill lists aren't piling up in Oklahoma anymore.

In October 2006 when the state had only a seventh of the number of labs found in Missouri, its leaders launched a statewide database that networked its 1,485 pharmacies. The system stops illegal sales at the counter.

"You're basically putting the 'Welcome' mat out for meth cooks to come to your state if you don't have a database," said Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward.

Oklahoma state officials directed a $500,000 federal grant to develop the Internet-based system. Missouri and Illinois receive the same grant, but use it to pay for more officers, technology and other drug enforcement efforts.

Oklahoma officials say the database played a key role in reducing the number of confirmed meth labs by 92 percent since the federal purchasing law was passed.

Kentucky, with a fifth of Missouri's meth labs, is trying a similar approach.

For more than two years, police in Laurel County, Ky., have tested software called MethCheck.

Police detective Brian Lewis sets up watch lists, and the system e-mails him when people buy pills. He tracks purchasing patterns of people buying pills within minutes of each other.

In the first year of using the program, the number of labs seized more than quadrupled. Using federal and state money, Kentucky plans to spend about $500,000 to link its 1,290 pharmacies statewide in June.

Tired of waiting

Missouri's House and Senate passed similar bills this year to build a system like Oklahoma's. Even if both chambers agree on a program, the money won't be available until next year. Even then, it's unclear when the state's 1,790 pharmacies will be linked.

Illinois lawmakers have yet to consider a statewide database, but it is under discussion.

But some counties in Missouri and Illinois aren't waiting.

St. Louis County landed a $12,000 grant this year to install MethCheck at about 45 area pharmacies. Illinois State Police plan to link pharmacies in Madison, Adams and Vermilion counties to a separate database.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has proposed a federal grant program to help states get databases, but it has yet to be approved.

It's being fought by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores that worries about waits at store counters, clerical mistakes in data and clerks' safety in refusing sales to meth addicts.

But Phil Woodward, who runs Oklahoma's Pharmacist's Association, called the drugstore industry's arguments "pretty weak."

"The bottom line is, we've had no trouble with it," he said.