CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For the second consecutive year, a Kanawha County task force is recommending that West Virginia legislators pass a law that would require people to get a prescription for a cold medicine that’s used to make methamphetamine in clandestine labs.

The recommendation comes despite a 40 percent drop in meth lab seizures statewide this year.

The Kanawha County Commission Substance Abuse Task Force concluded that meth labs remain a significant danger to children and families. West Virginia law enforcement officers have seized 290 labs this year, the third highest total in state history.

“They’re still out there,” said Dr. Dan Foster, who heads the task force. “They’re still big numbers.”

Foster said a law that requires a prescription for pseudoephedrine, a key meth-making ingredient, would rid West Virginia of meth labs and free up law enforcement officers to battle the state’s prescription drug and heroin problems.

“Not only do meth labs affect children and property, and create toxic exposure, the labs divert resources that could be used to deal with West Virginia’s critical opioid [heroin and painkiller] problem…