Pubdate: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 Source: International Herald-Tribune (International) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2005 Contact: http://www.iht.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212 Author: Kate Zernike, The New York Times Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) THE ORPHANS OF METHAMPHETAMINES STRAIN FOSTER CARE The Laura Dester Shelter here is licensed for 38 children, but at times in the past months it has housed 90, forcing siblings to double up in cots. It is supposed to be a 24-hour stopping point between troubled homes and foster care, but with foster homes backed up, children are staying weeks and sometimes months, making it more orphanage than shelter, a cacophony of need. In a rocking chair, a volunteer used one arm to feed a 5-day-old boy taken from his mother at birth, the other to placate a toddler who was wandering from adult to adult begging, "Bottle?" A 3-year-old who arrived at dawn shrieked as someone rubbed salve on her to kill lice. This is a problem methamphetamine has made, a scene increasingly familiar across the United States as the number of foster children rises rapidly in states hit hard by the drug - the overwhelming number of them, officials say, taken from parents who are using or making methamphetamine. Oklahoma last year became the first state to ban over-the-counter sales of cold medicines that contain the crucial ingredient in making methamphetamine. Even so, the number of foster children in the state is up 16 percent from a year ago. In Kentucky, the numbers are up 12 percent, or 753 children, with only seven new homes. In Oregon, 5,515 children entered the system in 2004, up from 4,946 the year before, and officials there say the caseload would be half what it is now if the methamphetamine problem suddenly went away. While foster populations in cities rose because of so-called crack babies in the 1990s, methamphetamine is mostly a rural phenomenon, and it has created virtual orphans in areas without social service networks to support them. In Muskogee, Oklahoma, an hour's drive south of Tulsa, a group is raising money to convert an old church into a shelter because there are none. Officials say methamphetamine's particularly potent and destructive nature and the fact that it is often made in the home conspire against child welfare unlike any other drug. It has become harder to attract and keep foster parents because the children of methamphetamine arrive with so many behavioral problems; they will not get into their beds at night because they are so used to sleeping on the floor, and they resist toilet training because they are used to wearing dirty diapers. "We used to think, you give these kids a good home and lots of love and they'll be O.K.," said Esther Rider-Salem, manager of Child Protective Services programs for Oklahoma. "This goes above and beyond anything we've seen." Although the methamphetamine problem has existed for years, officials in several states say the number of foster children created by it has spiked in the past year or two as growing awareness of the drug has prompted more raids on laboratories and more citizens reporting suspected methamphetamine use. Nationwide, the Drug Enforcement Administration says that over the past five years, 15,000 children were found at laboratories where methamphetamine was made. Last week, the National Association of Counties reported that 40 percent of child welfare officials surveyed nationwide said that methamphetamine had caused an increase in the number of children removed from homes. The percentage was far higher on the West Coast and rural areas, where the drug has hit the hardest. Seventy-one percent of counties in California, 70 percent in Colorado and 69 percent in Minnesota reported an increase in the number of children removed from homes because of methamphetamine. Officials say the drug has made it harder to reunite families. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 requires states to begin terminating parental rights if a child has spent 15 months out of 22 months in foster care. It was intended to keep children from languishing in foster homes. But rehabilitation for methamphetamine often takes longer than it does for other drugs, and parents fall behind the clock. "Termination of parental rights almost becomes the regular piece," said Jerry Foxhoven, the administrator of the Child Advocacy Board in Iowa. "We know pretty early that these families are not going to get back together." Methamphetamine is synthetic, cheap and easy to make at home using pseudoephedrine, the ingredient in many cold medicines, and common fertilizers, solvents or battery acid. Smoked, ingested or injected, the drug produces a tremendous and long-lasting rush, with intense sex em, officials say, taken from parents who are using or making methamphetamine. Oklahoma last year became the first state to ban over-the-counter sales of cold medicines that contain the crucial ingredient in making methamphetamine. Even so, the number of foster children in the state is up 16 percent from a year ago. In Kentucky, the numbers are up 12 percent, or 753 children, with only seven new homes. In Oregon, 5,515 children entered the system in 2004, up from 4,946 the year before, and officials there say the caseload would be half what it is now if the methamphetamine problem suddenly went away. While foster populations in cities rose because of so-called crack babies in the 1990s, methamphetamine is mostly a rural phenomenon, and it has created virtual orphans in areas without social service networks to support them. In Muskogee, Oklahoma, an hour's drive south of Tulsa, a group is raising money to convert an old church into a shelter because there are none. Officials say methamphetamine's particularly potent and destructive nature and the fact that it is often made in the home conspire against child welfare unlike any other drug. It has become harder to attract and keep foster parents because the children of methamphetamine arrive with so many behavioral problems; they will not get into their beds at night because they are so used to sleeping on the floor, and they resist toilet training because they are used to wearing dirty diapers. "We used to think, you give these kids a good home and lots of love and they'll be O.K.," said Esther Rider-Salem, manager of Child Protective Services programs for Oklahoma. "This goes above and beyond anything we've seen." Although the methamphetamine problem has existed for years, officials in several states say the number of foster children created by it has spiked in the past year or two as growing awareness of the drug has prompted more raids on laboratories and more citizens reporting suspected methamphetamine use. Nationwide, the Drug Enforcement Administration says that over the past five years, 15,000 children were found at laboratories where methamphetamine was made. Last week, the National Association of Counties reported that 40 percent of child welfare officials surveyed nationwide said that methamphetamine had caused an increase in the number of children removed from homes. The percentage was far higher on the West Coast and rural areas, where the drug has hit the hardest. Seventy-one percent of counties in California, 70 percent in Colorado and 69 percent in Minnesota reported an increase in the number of children removed from homes because of methamphetamine. Officials say the drug has made it harder to reunite families. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 requires states to begin terminating parental rights if a child has spent 15 months out of 22 months in foster care. It was intended to keep children from languishing in foster homes. But rehabilitation for methamphetamine often takes longer than it does for other drugs, and parents fall behind the clock. "Termination of parental rights almost becomes the regular piece," said Jerry Foxhoven, the administrator of the Child Advocacy Board in Iowa. "We know pretty early that these families are not going to get back together." Methamphetamine is synthetic, cheap and easy to make at home using pseudoephedrine, the ingredient in many cold medicines, and common fertilizers, solvents or battery acid. Smoked, ingested or injected, the drug produces a tremendous and long-lasting rush, with intense sexual desire. As a result of sexual binges, some child welfare officials say, methamphetamine users are having more children. The drug binges tend to last for days or weeks, and the crash is tremendous, leaving children unwashed and unfed for days as parents fall into a deep sleep. "The oldest kid becomes the parent, and the oldest kid may be 4 or 5 years old," said Mike Stratton, a pediatrician in Muskogee, who is involved with a state program for children exposed to drugs, run in conjunction with the Justice Department. "The parents are basically worthless; when they're not stoned, they're sleeping it off." The police who raid methamphetamine laboratories say they try to leave the children with relatives, particularly in rural areas, where there are few other options. But it has become increasingly clear, they say, that often the relatives, too, are cooking or using methamphetamine. After the ban on over-the-counter pseudoephedrine was enacted in Oklahoma, the number of children taken out of methamphetamine laboratories and into the foster care system declined by about 15 percent said Yvonne Glick, a lawyer at the Department of Human Services in Oklahoma who works with the state's alliance for drug-endangered children. But she said the number of children found with parents who were using the drug had more than compensated for any decline. At Laura Dester, three new children arrived on a recent morning, the 3-year-old being treated for lice and two siblings, found playing in an abandoned house while their mother was passed out at home. The girl wandered with a plastic bag over her hair to keep the salve from leaking. She hugged her little brother, then grabbed a toy phone out of his hand, leaving him wailing. "Who's on the phone?" asked Kay Saunders, the shelter's assistant director. "My mom," the girl said, then turned to her little brother. "It's ringing!" - --- MAP posted-by: Beth