TAYLOR -- Perhaps family ties only go so far, especially when you suspect that your own flesh and blood may be committing a crime.
A mother in Lackawanna County went to authorities about her son when she suspected he was running a meth lab.
That 24-year-old man is behind bars now, charged with making methamphetamine in his mother's home. She was the one who turned him in, but she says it was the hardest decision she's ever made.
"I had to make the biggest decision any parent has ever done, and I had to call the police on him."
Debra London is racked with emotion, after calling the police on her own son James London.
Police accuse him of making the drug methamphetamine in his mother's home on Rockledge Terrace in Taylor.
Debra says she tried to get her son help, but he was erratic and refused it. Turning him in was her last resort.
"He looked at me and he said, 'you know, mom, this is Fed time.' I said, 'you know it's either Fed time or you're going to be in the ground. It's one or the other.' And after he was handcuffed and they started taking him away, he says, 'mom, please give me a hug.'"
Debra London hopes her son will, in time, understand the decision she made to turn him in, saying it's one she believes she needed to make to save his life and potentially others.
"She was very upset for what she did, but as she expressed, I don't think she has any regrets doing it," said Taylor Police Officer Steven Derenick.
Officer Derenick says Debra did the right thing.
While the meth lab her son made in the home was small, a clandestine lab team had to be called in.
Police say remnants of the highly explosive chemicals were thrown into a nearby garbage can and could have been dangerous to neighbors or even DPW workers.
"They don't know what they are getting into. You know, throwing their garbage in the back of the truck, this cloud appears nobody would know why they became ill."
Debra London hopes her son can now get the help she believe he needs.
For now, he is locked up in the Lackawanna County jail on $100,000 bail.