STRENGTHEN LAWS TO FIGHT METH CRISIS

They call them "meth orphans" -- the innocent children whose lives are
disrupted and endangered by their parents' involvement with the fastest
growing drug menace in the region.

James Chambers, 2, and Breanna Chambers, 11 months, could be the poster
children for this disturbing trend. Their plight brings into sharp focus
the need for a tough stance and new laws to battle methamphetamine in
Virginia, Tennessee and the rest of the Southeast.

The Chambers children became familiar to us this weekend after an Amber
Alert was issued for them. Their parents snatched them from a North
Carolina foster home at gunpoint, police reported.

For days, no one knew where the children were and authorities feared the
worst. Their father was on the run from the law; social workers took the
children from their parents after a meth lab was found in their home.

Thankfully, police found the tots unharmed in a remote, mountainous part of
Grayson County, Va., on Wednesday; their parents were arrested and charged
with kidnapping. What the future holds for the Chambers children is unclear.

Certainly, they are no longer in immediate danger, but they were living in
a home where baby bottles and toxic chemicals sat side-by-side in the
kitchen sink. Methamphetamine is brewed from cold pills and a dangerous mix
of common household products. The manufacturing process gives off volatile
vapors which can destroy the lungs and even explode. Not a safe place for a
child.

Parents who gamble with their children's lives by bringing the meth-making
process into their home in a quest to make a quick buck or to get high
don't deserve a second chance to put those children in danger. Their
parental rights should be terminated. The Chambers children are still
babies; they deserve a chance to grow up in a safe home with loving foster
or adoptive parents who will protect them.

Meanwhile, Virginia lawmakers -- like their counterparts in other states --
are considering a variety of get-tough on meth measures this session. Of
note, one bill would impose an additional 10 to 40 years in prison for
those who allow methamphetamine to be made in the presence of children.
That seems about right to us.

Other bills increase the penalties for other meth crimes, making almost any
possession of the drug or precursor chemicals a felony. The granddaddy of
them all calls for a sentence of 20 years to life for anyone caught making
or distributing more than 100 grams of the illegal stimulant.

The most controversial measure calls for cold pills that contain
pseudoephedrine to be locked up behind a pharmacy counter. That might be an
overreaction, but methamphetamine is a growing danger that must be faced.

On the same day that the Chambers children were rescued, Washington County,
Va., deputies took down their third methamphetamine lab of the year. Need
we say more?