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Washington is the first municipality in the nation to pass a local law requiring prescriptions for such medications.
Oregon, the only state in the nation with a prescription requirement, saw a significant drop in meth labs after passing the statewide law in 2006.
After the council approved the ordinance July 6, the ACLU sent a letter urging the bill's repeal and indicating that it may take legal action. That prompted one council member, John Rhodes to offer the ordinance to reverse the earlier decision. That bill was tabled July 20.
Voting Monday night in favor of repeal were Rhodes and Carolyn Witt. Tim Buddemeyer, Guy Midkiff, Walt Meyer, Connie Groff and Jeff Mohesky voted no to the repeal.
The vote came after an hour-long closed executive session. There was no discussion or comments made when the council reconvened and defeated the ordinance.
"The ordinance remains in place. We'll see what happens next," Mayor Dick Stratman said Tuesday morning.
"I wasn't surprised. I thought that's what the vote would be," Stratman said.
The mayor said he's spoken with State Sen. John Griesheimer about requesting a Missouri attorney general's opinion on the city's anti-meth law. "We talked about that previously."
Critics, like the ACLU, argue that the city does not have the authority to pass such a law.
Others, like the Missouri Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs thinks the ordinance is OK, according to the Associated Press.
"As long as it's more restrictive than state and federal laws, and they're able to pass it, the city has the authority to do this," said Dean Linneman, section administrator for the Department of Health and Senior Services Health Standards and Licensure division, which oversees the bureau.
The push to get other municipalities in Franklin County to pass similar local ordinances is being spearheaded by Detective Sgt. Jason Grellner, head of the Franklin County Narcotics Enforcement Unit.
"I'm very proud of the councilmen and women for taking this stand," Grellner said. He attended Monday's meeting, but did not address the council on the matter.
"It took a lot of courage to stand up and do the right thing," Grellner said. "This shows that they're willing to go the distance.
"Hopefully, we'll have some other towns jump on board soon and join the fight," he remarked.
Grellner is going town-to-town in Franklin County urging city boards to pass ordinances. He's been asked to attend a town hall meeting in Sullivan on the issue in the future.
Grellner led an effort to get a statewide prescription bill passed in the last legislative session but it never got out of committee because of lobbying efforts by the pharmaceutical industry.
Missouri has led the nation for years in meth labs, and Franklin County consistently places in the top five counties for meth lab seizures.
State and federal law restricts the amount of cold pills people may buy, but offenders get around that by buying at multiple outlets, a process called "smurfing."
The current pharmacy monitoring system, which requires a person to show I.D. and sign a log, has not curtailed the purchase of cold medicines used to make meth, authorities say.
