'ORPHANED' BY METH

In Its Fight Against An Epidemic Of Methamphetamine Abuse, North Carolina
Needs Stronger Laws To Protect Children

It's bad enough that methamphetamine hooks most users so effectively that
only 6 percent of them ever free themselves from it. But it's heartbreaking
that the illegal stimulant is, in effect, making orphans of innocent
children. North Carolina must have tougher laws with which to protect more
of them. As The N&O reports, foster care rolls are bulging with children
who were found in illegal meth labs in western North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee. That stands to reason, given the huge increase in
methamphetamine activity these areas have seen. In Watauga County, for
instance, arrests for meth production have quadrupled over the past two years.

It's incomprehensible that adults, let alone parents, would be willing to
expose young children to the volatile toxic ingredients of methamphetamine.
Yet authorities report finding toddlers crawling on contaminated floors and
school-age children doing the labs' dirty work.

As heart-wrenching as the process is, counties are right to remove children
from such places and from parents who would allow such horrors. And it's
gratifying that volunteer groups have stepped up to address the needs of
the young people involved. The federal government also has taken a step in
the right direction with a $30,000 grant to help Watauga cope with this
growing problem.

Prevention would be preferable, but the threat of losing custody of their
children doesn't seem to work as a deterrent for some hardened meth
producers. Says Maj. Paula Townsend of the Watauga Sheriff's Department,
"... We have some people who don't seem to care."

Law enforcement, of course, must do its best to stop these "drug thugs."
But the growing social problem presented by their abused children deserves
separate attention.

State prosecutors say they can't apply child-endangerment laws in
methamphetamine cases because the laws don't specifically address drug
manufacturing. To make a child abuse charge stick against a meth producer,
a child must have been hurt in an explosion or fire. A charge of selling or
manufacturing meth typically results in probation for a first-time
offender, and that's mighty light for endangering a child.

Tougher penalties upon conviction of manufacturing dangerous drugs in the
presence of children make sense. A legislative study committee should be
assigned to figure out what sort of penalty -- confiscating bank accounts,
serving more prison time or some combination -- would better deter meth
producers. Calling a few ex-offenders to a public hearing for their
suggestions could well be helpful.

North Carolina is locked in a difficult fight against methamphetamine and
faces the real prospect of being swamped with victims of all ages, as other
states have been. Meth is a powerful drug that is relatively cheap, and
therefore profitable, to make. But there would be no excuse for failing to
do everything possible to protect vulnerable children from the harm that
too many now suffer.