Pubdate: Sun, 04 Nov 2007
Source: Springfield News-Leader (MO)
Copyright: 2007 The Springfield News-Leader
Contact:  http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1129
Author: Brittany Breidenbach
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH LABS DECLINE, BUT KIDS STILL SUFFER

Now mostly imported rather than home-cooked, the drug  figures in much
of Greene County's crime, and child  neglect follows.

On the surface, Springfield may seem like it has  recovered from its
ugly methamphetamine epidemic, but a  closer look reveals lingering
scars.

The homemade speed, now often imported from labs in  Mexico and other
states, continues to cause major  problems for Springfield's law
enforcement, emergency  rooms and children.

Meth is harder to create in Missouri now that drugs  with
pseudoephedrine have moved behind the counter, but  users and dealers
have become more creative in bringing  the drug into town.

Meth labs in Springfield have decreased since 2005,  when southwest
Missouri was known as "a meth center for  the United States,"
according to the 2007 Community  Focus Report, a "report card"
published every two years  that summarizes the strengths and
weaknesses of  Springfield and Greene County.

This year, no more than three labs were seized, a big  change from
nearly two per week in recent years,  according to Greene County
Sheriff Jack Merritt.

Yet 70 percent of inmates in jail are there because of  meth or
meth-related activity, in Merritt's view.

"It's easier now to commit forgery or identity theft  and get the
money (to buy meth)," Merritt said.

Likewise, the CFR says meth "plays a significant role  in the
escalating number of property crimes."

Property crimes in Springfield and Greene County rose  to 13,161 last
year, 1,000 more than in 2004, according  to the report.

Undercover drug purchases, possession arrests and  hospital emergency
room overdose reports also point to  meth as a formidable, regional
problem, the report  states.

Children suffer most

For Melissa Haddow, executive director at Community  Partnership of
the Ozarks, those who suffer most from  meth are children.

Although meth labs are harder to find now, children in  homes where
meth is used continue to be abused and  neglected, Haddow said.

"The user can ignore them for 24 ... 36 hours," she
said.

The CFR reports "Greene County's child abuse and  neglect rate is 7.9,
still well above Missouri's rate  of 5.3 per 1,000 children" and cites
"Greene County's  longstanding issue with methamphetamine, coupled
with  the increasing rate of child poverty" as major
contributors.

"One of the things that we see as a direct result of  meth is
neglect," said Barbara Brown, executive  director for the Child
Advocacy Center.

Because meth users can stay awake for several days  straight, they
literally sleep for days to recover.

Brown said that another major issue not often talked  about is the way
meth affects users sexually.

"It affects the pleasure center," she said. "It can  really put
children in danger of being sexually abused  much more than if there
had not been meth."

Eighty percent of the 614 cases the Advocacy Center has  seen this
year have been related to sexual abuse.

Even the unborn are affected when their parents take
meth.

Since mid-2006, the Greene County Prosecutor's Office  has filed six
charges of Endangering the Welfare of a  Child in the First Degree (a
class C felony) against  mothers of babies born testing positive for
methamphetamine.

Once they are born, "meth" babies can cry often, which  can easily
aggravate their meth-using parents, whose  tempers are shorter while
using the drug, Haddow said.

A hospital drain

In Greene County, admissions for meth treatment to  drug-treatment
programs went from 358 to 512 from 2004  to 2006, according to the
CFR.

Treatment programs include those at Cox Center for  Addictions and the
Burrell Behavioral Health Center,  but not emergency rooms.

In fact, meth users who go to the ER are not sent to  the hospital for
detoxification, according to Mark  Beas, director for the Center of
Addictions at Cox  South.

Beas said meth users generally do not have the "acute  medical
conditions" that people recovering from alcohol  or sedatives do, such
as increasing blood pressure and  high respiration.

However, the emergency room is heavily affected by  meth, he
said.

Methamphetamine makes users stay awake through extreme  situations,
past the point when they would normally  pass out. They often get into
domestic disputes or car  accidents. That's when "the emergency
department comes  into play," Beas said.

This can tie up hospital resources and personnel and  creates longer
waiting periods.

"The Cox psychiatric units are over 90 percent capacity  most of the
time," Beas said. "If you don't have a bed  here, you have to find
another bed where a patient can  be transported."

The hospital is responsible for arranging and providing
transportation to the nearest hospital, even to Joplin,  Beas added.

Users often arrive in the middle of the night, in the  early morning
or on weekends.

"This is when things start to break down for them,"  Beas said. "They
are trying to hold together normal  lives in the day."

It's also the peak period at the emergency room.

In addition, addicts are often paranoid and can feel  threatened by
hospital personnel. That's part of the  reason full-time security
personnel are needed in  emergency rooms during peak hours.

"Meth addicts are very demanding, very impaired," Beas  said. "They
become volatile quickly."
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MAP posted-by: Derek