If you ever doubted the deadly power of methamphetamine, one look at the front page of Wednesday's issue of The Southern Illinoisan might have changed your mind.

Perhaps you first noticed the gaunt and pained image of Shawn Bridges, who died earlier in the week after years of meth abuse. Maybe you wondered over the irony of a dying man gaining international notice from a documentary film that chronicled his deadly descent. Perhaps the headline, "Meth comes at high cost," made you think.

We're hoping you noticed all of those things and read the plain-spoken thoughts of Shawn's father, Jack Bridges, about his son's final years:

"We knew the damage had been done to his body. He was only given six months to a year to live. The good Lord gave him five and a half years longer than the doctors gave him, and we thank Him for every minute of it."

Here's the bottom line, folks: We've got a real problem with meth in Southern Illinois.

Just a simple examination of the numbers of meth labs busted in just one year - 2005 - offers a load of evidence. Here are the totals by county: Williamson, 108; Jackson, 71; Jefferson, 36; Union, 8; Perry, 6; Johnson, 6; Saline, 5; and Franklin, 0.

That's a total of 240 known meth labs that were shut down. Only a fool would suggest the resulting drug seizures, arrests and property confiscations put a serious dent in the area's meth trafficking. Even a cursory review of media reports from 2006 and the first three months of this year offers ample anecdotal evidence of sustained meth arrests and meth-related crimes.

Shawn Bridges picked a hard way to learn the truth about meth. It was a truth he shared in the film documentary, "No More Sunsets." The filmmaker, former Southern Illinois resident Chip Rossetti, says the 29-minute black and white film has attracted interest across the nation and around the world.

"A lot of people associate sunrises and sunsets as peaceful times; it's also seen as a time of beauty. I shot the film in black and white, because at the time I wanted to show that Shawn was no longer able to see the beauty in life," Rossetti said.

Jack Bridges wishes his son hadn't fallen prey to meth, but is proud that Shawn wanted to document and show what meth had done to him. His goal was to participate in a film that would educate young people in the local church he once attended.

And now the message has been shared around the world.

This drug that we clinically describe as methamphetamine wields a death grip, one thus far immune to extinction by law enforcement and official concern.

What's needed now is a regional resolve to tackle meth as a problem that affects everyone - as the bereaved, as crime victims and as consumers coping with meth-driven costs.

The Southern Illinoisan will be paying more attention to methamphetamine abuse in the coming year. It is our hope to initiate and sustain a community dialogue that turns the tide on meth abuse.

Please join us in this quest.