WASHINGTON, Mo. | Sales of decongestants containing pseudoephedrine &mdash; the key ingredient for making methamphetamine &mdash; have plummeted in Washington, Mo., since a city ordinance began requiring prescriptions. </p><p> It&rsquo;s a sign of success, say Washington officials, whose position also has been buoyed by an opinion from Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster that their law is legal. </p><p> Washington was the first city in the nation to require prescriptions for what everywhere else was an over-the-counter product. </p><p> &ldquo;We just thought it was the right thing to do, but if it&rsquo;s doing what the numbers show, that&rsquo;s really encouraging,&rdquo; said Mayor Dick Stratman. </p><p> Sales of the select cold and allergy products among Washington&rsquo;s stores decreased by an average of 92.9 percent in the three months after the law took effect July 7. That is according to figures collected by pharmacies in accordance with federal law and shared with the Franklin County Sheriff&rsquo;s Department. </p><p> From a similar period, April 1 through July 7, Washington&rsquo;s five commercial pharmacies sold about 4,400 boxes of the decongestant in the town of about 13,000. The number dropped to 310 from July 7 and Sept. 30. </p><p> No one can say how many of the lost sales would have been used to cook methamphetamine. </p><p> But pharmacists at a large chain store in Washington told the Post-Dispatch that sales of alternative decongestants did not rise proportionately to the drop in pseudoephedrine sales. They said most local doctors were phoning in prescriptions without requiring office visits. </p><p> Schnucks spokesman Paul Simon described the increase in sales of alternative products as &ldquo;slight.&rdquo; </p><p> &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not been an issue among our customers either way,&rdquo; Simon said. </p><p> Authorities suspected that sales may rise at drugstores just beyond reach of the law. </p><p> But it didn&rsquo;t happen. </p><p> Not at Walmart, at least, which figures show to be the most popular choice for psuedoephedrine buyers. </p><p> Sales dropped an average of 1.3 percent at Walmart stores in surrounding towns during the same period. </p><p> The nearest store is in Union, about five miles south of Washington. There, sales declined by 0.5 percent. (The town has since passed a prescription law of its own, effective Oct. 13.) </p><p> There was one exception: Eureka. Sales increased about 8 percent at its Walmart, which is about 25 miles east of Washington and along the route leading to the greatest concentration of pharmacies in the state: St. Louis County. </p><p> &ldquo;Criminals are lazy, and they&rsquo;re creatures of habit,&rdquo; said Franklin County Sgt. Jason Grellner. &ldquo;We anticipate a shift in buying patterns to the east.&rdquo; </p><p> Should the prediction come true, Sgt. Tom Murley of the St. Louis County police say they&rsquo;re ready. </p><p> There, police have seized about 16 meth labs so far this year and don&rsquo;t expect to reach the 27 labs they busted last year. It has been two months since the last one -- the longest the county has gone in 10 years, Murley said. </p><p> Murley credits a database that tracks pill purchases in the county&rsquo;s 200-plus pharmacies, and the muscle to put it to use. </p><p> &ldquo;We have four people investigating and using the database to locate individuals within the county, and we&rsquo;re probably the only police department that has that across the country,&rdquo; Murley said. </p><p> Murley said other narcotics units juggle other drug problems besides monitoring pseudoephedrine sales. </p><p> &ldquo;If no one is looking at it, or blocking sales, why even have it?&rdquo; Murley asked.