STATE SHOULD NOT DUCK METH PROBLEMS

Tennessee reportedly has the worst methamphetamine problem in the South, if
not the nation. Hundreds of children have been removed from their homes
where their parents have been involved in producing or using the dangerous
drug.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials and child protection caseworkers
predict the problem is likely to become worse before it gets better.

Faced with this monumental issue, the state's lawmakers have taken an
entirely baffling step: A legislative panel has punted the matter to the
governor, seeking appointment of a task force to study the issue and report
next year.

This is the wrong move. Issues like tax reform call for deliberation.
Methamphetamine is a serious crime, and legislators need to develop a sense
of urgency in dealing with it.

More than 30 bills have been filed in the Legislature this session to deal
with illegally manufacturing and distributing meth. Several of the bills
would increase prison sentences for meth sales and production.

Earlier this year, the Tennessee Public Safety Coalition, a statewide group
of district attorney generals, chiefs of police and sheriffs, pleaded for
legislation to strengthen the criminal laws dealing with the manufacture
and distribution of methamphetamine. The coalition also strongly supported
MethWatch, a program to educate citizens about the dangers of meth.

Even if some of the bills pass, their effectiveness would be in doubt
because of funding. State spending on prisons would increase beyond what is
anticipated with the planned addition of about 2,000 inmate beds.

We understand the complexity of the problem. Methamphetamine hit the state
at least a decade ago; manufacture and use of the product have found a home
in the hollows and hills of Middle and East Tennessee. It is primarily a
rural phenomenon, with only limited appearances in urban locales.

The rural nature of the crime makes it more difficult to detect. But
lawmakers need to consider that it is not going to recede while they study
the issue, no matter how seriously they regard it.

Panel chairman Sen. Steve Cohen noted, "The idea of just putting people in
jail is not a very effective way to deal with the problem." Since when?
Granted, long-term solutions and rehabilitation are needed, but
incarceration is the best alternative right now for breaking up meth labs
and getting innocent children away from their addicted parents and guardians.

And the children might well be the heart and soul of this whole sorry
scourge. The Tennessee Department of Children's Services took custody of
about 700 children from their meth-making parents in the 18 months prior to
last July - according to the department's most recent count.

"It is different from anything we have ever faced before," said Rep. Judd
Metheny, a Tullahoma Republican who sponsored one of the bills increasing
penalties for making methamphetamine. "We are looking down the barrel of
another 2,000 children having to be removed from their homes."

Those displaced children should be on the minds of each legislator and each
task force member every day they deliberate. The emotional cost to those
innocents now and as they grow older makes the state's lack of funding
little more than a sorry excuse. This is one of those times the state needs
to find its money and its conscience.