Iowa on Tuesday enacted the strongest state measure yet restricting the sale of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used illicitly to produce the mild-altering methamphetamine drug.

Under the new law signed by Gov. Thomas Vilsack, Iowans will be required to show identification and sign their names when buying common cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine.

The medicines, which may include such well-known brand names as Sudafed, PediaCare, Sinutab, Dimetapp and Triminic, will be banned from store shelves where they could be stolen, and placed in locked cases or behind pharmacy counters.

Legislators, who passed the law unanimously last week, said while the bill would make it inconvenient for consumers, the measure was worth it because it would curtail methamphetamine production in the state.

“We have an epidemic here in Iowa. It’s called methamphetamine,” Rep. Clel Baudler, a Republican and retired state trooper, said in a recent legislative forum. “It’s a highly addictive, illegal drug that has basically defied all our efforts to control its spread.”

Methamphetamine use has been soaring in popularity in recent years, largely because it is so easy and cheap to make, while providing a long-lasting high. The rampant growth of the drug use has driven increased crime and the destruction of families and communities, according to law enforcement.

Iowa has been one of the hardest-hit states. Last year, law enforcement counted 1,472 meth laboratory incidents - when police evidence of a lab to make the drug - up from 1,182 in 2003 and just two a decade ago, in 1994.

Oklahoma last year passed a similar law and many other states have passed or are considering laws affecting sales of cold medicines.

But Iowa’s new law is considered the toughest. It not only takes products off store shelves, and requires consumers to be identified, but it also limits the amount individuals can buy of all forms of the medicines - tablet, liquid and gel-caps.

Even as supporters applauded the new law in Iowa, they said they feared the fight against meth could slide back because of proposed federal funding cuts. The Bush administration is proposing to cut federal funding by more than 50 percent for law enforcement, prosecution and environmental clean-up related to methamphetamine. The president’s budget also would wipe out the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program.

“We thought this (law) would allow us to take one big step forward,” said Dale Woolery, head of the Iowa governor’s drug control office. “But if we are going to see precious resources pulled out from underneath us…you could argue we are taking one step forward, two steps back.