Series: Meth: Shattering Lives In Northern Nevada

A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that
methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

LOVE FOR METH COSTS MOMS THEIR CHILDREN

One Reno mother last year bathed her 3-year-old son in hydrogen
peroxide to eat the microscopic cameras she believed her neighbors
inserted under his skin during the night.

A Sparks mother of four waited more than 24 hours to hospitalize her
10-month-old after he ate some of her meth stash kept on her
knee-high night stand.

Another Reno mother in 2005 allowed a convicted felon to baby-sit her
6-year-old daughter in a downtown motel room where meth was
accessible and where conditions were so rank that the building was
condemned for health hazards after her arrest.

What these women share besides a love for meth is that their children
were removed from their custody and placed into foster care because
of their addiction.

Of the thousands of child abuse and neglect investigations done
through the Washoe County's child protective services in 2005, about
85 percent are related to methamphetamine, said Jeanne Marsh,
children's services division director. The majority of the children
removed from their families are infants to 10-year-olds.

And an increasing number of parents are losing their parental rights
"""" considered in family court as "the death penalty," Marsh said.
Meth is also contributing to fewer families being reunited. In 2004
and 2005, there were 389 cases in which children were removed from
their families, and in most of those cases, drug abuse was involved.

'I can't believe you'

Michelle Smith is 37, divorced and has a 16-year-old daughter. A
Carson City court ordered the daughter into the custody of Smith's
mother after Smith's third meth arrest and probation violation.
Smith, who lives in a transitional home in Sparks for recovering drug
addicts, said she also manufactured meth but was never arrested for that.

Smith said the last time she was arrested, her daughter watched as
she was handcuffed, drug pipes and a bag of freshly made meth sitting
next to her on the bed.

"I told her I got caught with drugs. She looked at me and shook her
head. She said 'I can't believe you.'

"I put drugs before my child, something I told her I would never do
again," she said. "Twice I had quit and started using again. But I
tried to stay clean the first time for her, not me. Obviously I
wasn't ready to stop using again."

Smith said she used to spoil her daughter with love and affection,
but meth changed all of that.

"She would come home from school and I'd tell her to get lost and go
outside and play," she said. "I'd lock myself in my room with my
friends and she'd be sitting there wondering why I wouldn't come out.
She'd be crying and I'd end up getting mad that she was in the way of
my drug use."

Families not reuniting

The Washoe County's Family Drug Court, which supervises drug-addicted
parents arrested for child neglect and abuse, reported that 59
percent of the families were reunited after parents successfully
completed the one-year program. The goal is to reunite children with
parents after they prove they can remain sober.

Last year, there were 26 new families in the court program, for a
total of 58 clients.

"With meth, the neglect and addiction is so severe that we are not
reunifying the families," Marsh said. The 40 percent of families that
aren't reunited contribute to the high need for foster families in the county.

"These parents go on meth runs, forget about the kids and leave them
in the house with no food," she said. "There is no medical or dental
care for these children. They're left in a big unsanitary mess. It's
a miracle children survive."

Johnie Pereira, 38, is now faced with raising his 3-year-old son
after the boy's mother, a meth addict and dealer, left them a few months ago.

"She picked meth over our son," he said. "She didn't pay attention to
him, and one day, he drank the water from her crank bong. He got sick
and she laughed."

Instead of caring for the boy, Pereira said, she was always in her
bedroom with her friends, closing the door and using meth.

"He would be beating on her door and she would yell 'Go away' because
he was interfering with her socializing and meth," he said. "She put
him in front of a TV and had (his older brothers) watch him. One of
the brothers is in prison for molesting my son."

Emotional problems

Many of these removed children have anger and emotional problems, are
behind in school and lack social skills, experts say. Older siblings
also take on a parental role when their parents neglect them. These
children, if they are not physically abused themselves, watch their
parents batter each other, a common side effect of meth. Children
also have medical issues due to parental neglect.

Marsh said children also learn that drugs are used as a coping method.

"For some, foster care is the most stable environment they've had,"
Marsh said. "Parents visit their children in the visiting rooms and
they say 'I was a good parent.' But on meth, they're not."

Valerie Santos, child services supervisor for family drug court, said
that when social workers can intervene at the beginning of meth
addictions, families have better chances for getting their lives on
track. Many use family drug court in Washoe County as a means to get
their lives in order through structured treatment sessions and drug testing.

"The impact of meth is that it is tearing families apart," Santos
said. "It's tough to integrate kids back with their parents because
they are used to them being drug addicts. Parents now need to learn
how to be parents."

Santos added that agitated, sleep-deprived and paranoid parents under
the influence of meth are more likely to physically abuse their
children or leave them with strangers who could sexually assault them.

Marsh said that under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, social
workers have one year to work with the parents, who need to follow
strict guidelines to get their children back. If they fail, their
parental rights could be terminated and the children will be adopted.
If parents are making progress, though, the 12-month timeline can be
extended. Because meth is so highly addictive and addicts have more
relapses, their treatment can be lengthy.

"The consequences to children are horrific with difficult outcomes,"
Marsh said. "We realize the seriousness and the need for longterm
(meth) treatment, but that butts up with laws that say we have a year
to reunite families."

Marsh said that some parents are functional meth users, and can hide
their addictions.

"We often see deplorable addicts, but there are also those who work
and are functional," she said. "But that only lasts so long. Some are
able to get clean but that depends on how quickly we intervene, how
long they've been using and if they have hit rock bottom yet."

Marsh said for many, hitting rock bottom is losing their children.
But for others, "they don't care and are not prepared to give up the drug."

Parents have to be clean for an additional six months before social
workers will close their cases.

"The underlying value is that people can change," Marsh said. "If I
didn't believe that, I couldn't do this job. So many families come in
and make poor choices, but they have the ability and desire to change."

"When parents use it when they are young, because meth is brain
altering, they are stuck in that age," Marsh said. "Now they need to
stay clean, keep a job and a home. If they don't recover, we have to
find a home for these children."

What stymies these parents is that many are convicted of drug or
child-abuse felonies, which causes problems in finding employment
above minimum wage and finding affordable housing. Felons also have a
hard time qualifying for low-income housing, Marsh said.

But children are not removed from homes on every occasion. For
example, on March 27 a 31-year-old unemployed man was arrested for
leaving his 10-month-old son crying in his crib while methamphetamine
and drug pipes sat on a kitchen table. The boy's mother told police
that her boyfriend had battered her about the head with a closed
pocket knife the day before because she was "hogging blankets." The
man was arrested while the child remained with its mother, who was
given a "safety plan" by investigating social workers who will
monitor the child's welfare.

"The underlying value is that people can change," Marsh said. "If I
didn't believe that, I couldn't do this job. So many families come in
and make poor choices, but they have the ability and desire to change."