EDITORIAL THE METH EPIDEMIC ANTI-DRUG ABUSE EFFORTS FACE CUTS EVEN AS PROBLEMS GET WORSE.

IN the early 1990s, crack cocaine was the hot and scary drug ravaging communities and lives across the nation, leaving a legacy of ``crack babies'' to grow up with a litany of health and behavioral problems.

The attention paid to the drug helped authorities fight it and publicize the dangers. As a result, crack lost its notoriety as Drug Enemy No. 1.

What has replaced it is as bad, or even worse: methamphetamine - or crystal meth, with days-long highs that end in canyon-like depressions, hallucination and paranoia.

Meth doesn't discriminate among racial or economic lines. It is felling Angelenos of all stripes, from soccer moms hoping to lose that annoying 10 extra pounds to immigrant dads looking for an energy boost to get through that second job after eight backbreaking hours at the first.

The highly addictive drug is ruining lives as addicts turn to crime to feed their habit, ripping up families and leaving a generation of ``meth babies'' behind.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said last month that ``meth is now the most dangerous drug in America.''

That's why it would be extremely shortsighted for governments to cut anti-drug programs.

Yet that could be the case as the federal budget is anticipated to cut hundreds of millions in grants for drug-fighting units across the country, including the successful L.A. IMPACT program. The Bush administration has indicated it thinks the efforts of units are ineffective.

Many have argued that the real cause of drug usage is a spiritual poverty that drives us to fill the void of family and community with material goods and drugs. There's no doubt that this is a valid argument, and one to be explored and considered in the large view of drug policy.

Meanwhile, though, that argument won't do anything for the 1 million meth users who have access to thousands of pounds of this drug made from a witches' brew of household chemicals and nonprescription drugs at this very moment.

That will take beefed-up law enforcement, anti-drug programs, education and a commitment to sensible drug policy.