TARGET PARENTS USING METH TO SAVE THEIR CHILDREN

With Help, They Can Become Clean, Get Their Kids Back

The face of meth is the face of a child. Members of Salem's Drug
Activity Response Team keep snapshots of children's faces on their
wall. That's how they get the stomach to enter drug homes where bugs
feast on dried food and meth sits within easy reach of kids.

Yet the face of a child also can inspire a meth-addicted parent to
get well, authorities say. During April, Child Abuse and Neglect
Prevention Month, the Statesman Journal will report on some of these stories.

Looking at the photo galleries of meth homes that accompanied
Sunday's Page 1 story, it's hard to believe that some meth users are
able to turn their lives around.

The color photos online give a horrifying child's-eye view of life
for 14 kids in two Salem households where adults were arrested on
meth charges. Drugs so dominated the parents' lives that they didn't
keep animal feces off the floor and didn't keep a clean spot in the
kitchen to prepare food.

For the past few years, the Mid-Valley has focused on the front end
of the meth battle, as it should: Get the kids out of danger. Get
them to a safe place. Prosecute the parents before kids grow up
thinking this is normal and pass the same life on to their own children.

Civic leaders have awakened our community to these needs. Scores of
families have signed up to be trained as foster parents. New homes
have opened to take children in a crisis, giving state workers time
to find foster families where siblings can stay together. A
methamphetamine strike force has raised private funds to supplement
tax-supported law enforcement efforts.

As for the parents, authorities say many meth addicts can get clean,
given good treatment and time. It may take a couple of years for the
toxic effects of meth to wear off. But locally, about 72 percent of
kids eventually return to the parent from whom they were removed,
or with another parent.

If that's the case, this community can't write off meth addicts as
beyond hope. We owe it to these children to learn more about saving
parents as well as kids.

So during this month, do something to help our abused and neglected
children -- nearly all of them the "unintended consequences of
meth," as local leaders have said. Do something for our community's children.