Pubdate: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA) Copyright: 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Contact: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28 Authors: Jill Young Miller, Craig Schneider, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) METH'S FORSAKEN CHILDREN - WHEN METH HITS HOME (First in a Series) When Parents Disappear Into A World Of Chaotic Drug Use, Danger And Heartbreak Follow For Their Sons And Daughters Methamphetamine is Georgia's fastest-spreading illegal drug problem, and it is taking a mounting toll on children whose parents use the stimulant or cook it up at home. As parents get hooked, kids get trapped in households gone haywire. They are neglected and abused. Their schooling suffers. And their health is threatened by toxic fumes and explosive chemicals when parents turn kitchens into home-based drug labs. Georgia police and social service workers struggle -- and in many cases fail -- to keep up with the drug's rising popularity and its impact on children. Horror stories are becoming common. Just last month, police found drug-making chemicals beside a 7-month-old boy's crib in Bartow County, northwest of Atlanta. In August, an 8-year-old boy from the Macon area walked into a shed -- where police suspect his father was making methamphetamine -- and an explosion blew the boy out the door. He was burned over one-quarter of his body. A Catoosa County infant, Chelton Hicks, was burned when his home erupted into flames in 2001. Authorities accused Chelton's father of starting the fire while cooking methamphetamine in a glass coffeepot. Four months after the fire, Chelton died. In recent years, the drug has surged across the state, said Vernon Keenan, director of the GBI. "It came into Georgia like a tidal wave," he said. >From 1999 to 2002, the number of Georgia meth labs raided by police jumped from 29 to 395, according to GBI figures based on federal fiscal years. In the 2003 fiscal year, which ended in September, the number shot up to 439 labs. >From January to Nov. 15 of this year, police found 61 children living at or exposed to homes used as meth labs in Georgia, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. That already surpasses last year's total of 52. But the DEA says the numbers could be much higher because some police departments don't report their data. Phil Price, the GBI agent who oversees drug enforcement in North Georgia, estimates that children are found at half the homes raided for meth labs in his region. But the busts represent a fraction of all home-brew labs. "That leaves a lot of kids out there," Price said. For drug users, methamphetamine -- which can be snorted, smoked, injected or eaten -- has its own special appeal. It's cheaper than cocaine, and its high can last 12 hours or more. People can buy an "eight ball" (an eighth of an ounce) for between $100 and $250, which can keep them buzzing for several days, boosting their energy and sex drive. 'Stuff straight from Satan' Some people dabble in the drug, using it occasionally to dance all night or study until dawn. But chronic use -- staying high for days -- can make a person paranoid and aggressive. "The meth user, it's like an alien takes them over," Keenan said. "They've got the body of the parent, but . . . an alien has taken them over. Very capable of hurting their children." In northwest Georgia's Catoosa County, about 20 percent of child abuse and neglect cases involve parents using methamphetamine, county child welfare officials say. Paul Standridge, a 14-year-old who lives in Whitfield County in North Georgia, repeatedly complained to his mother of pain from a problem with the circumcision he received as a baby. She was caught up in methamphetamine abuse and Paul didn't get surgery for two years. Daniel Carr, 21, who lives near Dalton, spent his teenage years with a meth-using father who fired gunshots into empty vehicles, fighting off enemies only he could see. "I wanted to help him, but I learned the hard way," said Daniel, recalling fistfights with his father. "It's like trying to feed an alligator raw meat with your hands." His father doesn't argue with that. "This stuff is straight from Satan," said Dana Carr, 41, whose years of drug use broke apart his family and left him homeless for a time. "The family goes all to hell." DEA Chief Inspector Rogelio E. Guevara told members of Congress this summer: "More than any other controlled substance, methamphetamine trafficking endangers children through exposure to drug use [and] abuse, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, toxic chemicals, hazardous waste, fire and explosion." People make the stimulant in their homes from a mundane assortment of products that can include cold pills, matchbooks, coffee filters and lye. Recipes are as close as the Internet. Metro Atlanta also is a major distribution hub for methamphetamine smuggled from large labs out West and in Mexico, Price said. Children can accidentally swallow chemicals stored in kitchen containers. They can absorb the drug and chemicals through their skin after touching contaminated countertops and floors. Even if parents just use the drug and don't make it, secondhand smoke can make its way into their child's lungs, boosting the child's heart rate and blood pressure. 'These Kids are Mad' Some researchers fear children raised by methamphetamine-using parents may carry deep emotional scars into adulthood. The children are isolated and exposed to all kinds of low behavior, they say. "These kids are mad. They're shut off," said Grace Price, a Cherokee County counselor who specializes in drug cases and is married to the GBI's Phil Price. "It's tough to get them to talk, to get angry, to cry, to trust again." Without a steady adult to guide them, some of these kids miss school and get into trouble with the law, according to a report issued in June by the U.S. Justice Department. Dr. Randell Alexander, a pediatrician at Morehouse School of Medicine, said parents on methamphetamine can become so wrapped up in the drug that they disappear from a child's life. "There is no adult present because they're impaired. . . . They might as well be in the corner bar," said Alexander, who is also director of the school's center on child abuse. Some children get sucked into parents' methamphetamine-making life. They start by keeping an eye out for police or running errands for ingredients such as cold pills. Some use the drug, some learn to make it, law enforcement officials say. Methamphetamine's growing threat to children is forcing Georgia police and child welfare workers to change their tactics. The GBI and the state's child protection agency, learning from past mistakes, have in the past year begun treating methamphetamine raids as rescue missions for kids, officials say. For years, the GBI would bust a meth lab, arrest the father and leave the children with the mother. But agents often found themselves back at the same address soon after, busting the mom or another family member for making methamphetamine, GBI's Price said. Now when GBI agents find children at meth labs, they call in social workers to make sure the children are medically checked and sent to live someplace safe. But the GBI is not involved in every meth lab bust in Georgia, and local police often don't have the training or resources to take the right steps for children, Price said. Child welfare caseworkers are not called in on every lab bust where children are found. In addition, caseworkers making routine home visits to troubled families often lack the training to recognize the signs of a home lab, said officials of the state Division of Family and Children Services. Training for Caseworkers Over the past year, GBI agents have started teaching caseworkers how to identify household meth labs -- cases of cold pills, cans of lye, and a stench like cat urine. About one-third of caseworkers statewide have attended the training sessions so far. Some children removed from labs are stripped at the scene because authorities fear chemicals may have contaminated the children's clothing. Then they are taken to a hospital for a medical exam. Child welfare officials say this practice should be standard for all children removed from labs, and officials are crafting it into a statewide policy. As methamphetamine destroys children's households, some kids are taken into foster care. Georgia does not specifically track their numbers. Child welfare advocates say the state should know more about the children that methamphetamine drives into foster care. Unless children are physically harmed, holding parents criminally responsible for exposing their children to methamphetamine's dangers is difficult, prosecutors say. Georgia's Legislature repeatedly has rejected a child endangerment law, leaving Georgia the only state in the country without one. Consequently, the GBI is drafting legislation directly aimed at methamphetamine-making parents who put their kids in harm's way. Lawmakers in several other states already have passed laws to protect children from methamphetamine. In Missouri, manufacturing the drug with children present is now punishable by up to life in prison. Even when police and social workers intervene, there are no easy answers. Child welfare investigators recall a case two years ago in which four parents were keeping 11 children in a motel room in Clayton County. The children were barefoot, dirty and hungry. The parents were using methamphetamine and marijuana, investigators said. One boy's face had been burned when his mother, lighting up, ignited a lampshade near the child. But when the children realized they would be taken into foster care, they panicked and started blaming themselves, authorities said. They begged to stay with their parents. "No matter what a parent does, a child is still going to love them," investigator Latrina Hollingsworth said. "Taking the child away can be detrimental in itself." Today, at least seven of the 11 children still receive counseling and medication for emotional problems. "You can have all the intervention you want, these kids still will have baggage," Hollingsworth said. "They can have problems for life." [SIDEBARS] TODAY'S ARTICLES . Meth's forsaken children . Paul Standridge: The struggle to trust again . Chelton Hicks: A cruel way to die . Daniel Carr: Trapped in a parent's nightmare . Ansleigh Davis: Yearning to become mom's child again . Brian Keith Davis Jr.: From generation unto generation ABOUT THE SERIES Today and the next two Sundays, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will feature a special report on a drug scourge sweeping Georgia. "When Meth Hits Home" reveals the threat of methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant that has become much more dangerous as it has become cheaper and more easily available. Some users can even make their own from household ingredients such as cold tablets and matchbooks. The GBI says it is Georgia's fastest-spreading illegal drug problem. From Atlanta's urban clubs to rural trailer parks, the drug is challenging law enforcement and social services and tearing families apart. . Today: This week's package on the impact of methamphetamine on children's lives was written by Jill Young Miller and Craig Schneider, edited by Susan Abramson, designed by Rick Crotts and copy-edited by Sharon Bailey. . Dec. 7: "A Mother on Meth": The story of a young mother's descent into a life ruled by methamphetamine, the impact on her own child and others, and her own mother's struggle to save her. . Dec. 14: "Georgia's Late Lessons": Georgia is behind other states in learning to deal with a methamphetamine surge. What other states have to teach Georgia lawmakers and law enforcement. TO GET HELP If you suspect that a family member or friend may be abusing methamphetamine or another drug, you can call Helpline Georgia at 1-800-338-6745. The hotline offers support, advice and referrals to drug treatment programs. Calls are confidential. You also can contact the Georgia Department of Human Resources' Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. Its offices provide help and referrals to drug treatment programs. The division's metro offices (serving Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton, Rockdale and Newton counties) are located at: Citizens Trust Building 75 Piedmont Ave., 11th floor Atlanta, GA 30303-2507 Phone: 404-463-6367 4329 Memorial Drive, Suite K Decatur, GA 30032 Phone: 404-298-4990 The division's Web site is: www2.state.ga.us/departments/dhr/mhmrsa/ - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl