CHILDREN OF ADDICTS PAY HIGH TOLL IN METH EPIDEMIC

Doug Stanley was overwhelmed by a chemical haze as the door swung open to
Gary Wayne Walker's home in Finley on Christmas Day 2000.

The Benton County sheriff's detective quickly tracked the fumes to a
methamphetamine lab set up in a bedroom of the Schuster Road home. Just
across the hallway, two young girls were in the bathroom, playing in the
bathtub.

Stanley, one of two officers assigned to the Benton County Methamphetamine
Abatement Team, can't forget that image.

The two girls were placed in foster care, joining about 250 other children
in a steadily growing foster care population in Benton and Franklin counties.

Behind that number are two other bleak statistics.

About 65 percent to 70 percent of the kids living in foster care or with
relatives in the two counties are there because of their parents'
methamphetamine abuse, according to Bryan Ovens, a state assistant attorney
general based in Kennewick.

And the number of foster kids in the two counties has increased at a rate
that is more than double the state rate as a whole. A state official says
that's because the Tri-Cities has a much higher rate of meth use since it
is on a main meth trade route.

"That's why we're seeing skyrocketing in our caseloads," said Ken Nichols,
Region 2 administrator for the state Division of Children and Family
Services in Yakima.

The basic cost for each child in foster care is $6,000 a year for housing,
food and clothing. Another $4,000 often is tacked on for counseling and
supervised visits with parents.

Because the number of meth-afflicted families is increasing so rapidly, the
total foster care cost for their children is estimated to be at least
$975,000 a year in Benton and Franklin counties. That compares with
$525,000 for children who are in foster care for other reasons or because
of other drugs.

State taxpayers pay 50 percent to 68 percent of these costs, Nichols said.
The rest is covered by federal matching dollars.

More troubling is that many of the meth-affected children will never return
home.

"We have our new kind of orphans here," said Dr. Sharon Ahart, a Kennewick
pediatrician who routinely examines children after they are removed from
meth homes and placed in foster care.

Fewer than 30 percent of meth-addicted parents regain custody of their
children within the two years allowed by the state, said Shannon Sullivan,
a state Child Protective Services Intake supervisor in Richland.

"The kids stay in foster care longer than with other drugs," agreed
Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court Commissioner Lonna Malone, who hears 25 to
30 dependency hearings a week involving Benton County children. Meth is the
root problem in the majority of those cases.

Malone said the reason the kids stay in foster care longer is because it's
harder for meth addicts to overcome their addiction. She said the parents
often face clinical depression because meth permanently changes the brain
and nothing gives them pleasure.

Next month, Benton and Franklin counties plan to introduce the
Benton-Franklin Family Drug Treatment Court, which aims to increase the
chances of reuniting parents and kids.

Sullivan said the goal is to reunite 70 percent of the parents in the
program with their children.

Officials also hope the program will alleviate the rising number of foster
care kids in Benton and Franklin counties, where the foster care population
has jumped 62 percent in the past decade from 154 to 250 children.

Across the state, the total foster care population has grown by 25 percent
to include 8,823 kids, compared with 7,043 a decade ago.

There are no statistics available to compare the number of Mid-Columbia
kids in foster care because of meth with other counties or the overall
state average.

That's because the Department of Social and Health Services doesn't track
whether a child is in foster care because of substance abuse, said agency
spokeswoman Kathy Spears in Olympia. Children are removed from parents'
care if there is evidence of abuse or neglect, she said.

Another program aims to help the youngest children affected by substance
abuse. The state's Safe Babies, Safe Moms program tries to help pregnant
women and mothers of children under age 3 give up their drug habits and
rebuild their lives.

The program, which has operated in the Tri-Cities for five years, helps
low-income women who are drug- and alcohol-addicted get treatment and
services for their children.

Three-quarters of the 120 Safe Babies, Safe Moms clients have used meth,
said supervisor Shelley Little.

But Ahart believes existing programs for meth-abusing parents don't do
enough to combat the epidemic.

"These Band-Aids are not working," she said.

Meth-abusing parents should face surprise home visits, intensive drug
screenings and close monitoring of their disciplinary skills, Ahart said.

She also believes a state social worker should coordinate with schools and
physicians to monitor the children's performance in school and detect
learning or developmental disabilities.

Joseph Schneider, Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court commissioner, said the
family drug court program will cover all of these areas, address financial
needs and provide psychological evaluations and parenting classes.

Although the program will be open to parents who abuse any illegal drug or
alcohol, the majority of the participants likely will be meth-addicted.

Seventy to 80 percent of current dependency cases involve meth, said
Schneider, who will preside over the program's court matters.

When programs to combat meth fall short, the cost is horrific to children
living in meth homes.

The mental picture of an infant in a crib cradling a bottle of curdled milk
is burned into the memory of Pasco Sgt. Mike Monroe, who worked on the
Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force for five years. He also recalls seeing a can
of acetone, which can explode when heated, hidden in a stove at another
child's house.

And Kennewick Detective Rick Runge hasn't forgotten the 6-month-old baby
who lived in a meth-lab home where a pig, ferret and cats had defecated all
over the floor.

"The place was so bad that they bulldozed it," Runge said.

"When people are on meth, they don't recognize the filth that they're
living in or exposing their children to," added Runge, who has investigated
roughly 300 meth labs in Kennewick since 1999.

At a meth lab on Kennewick's Cleveland Street, bags of baby clothing were
mixed with drug pipes, he said, and Mason jars used to make meth were
soaking in the sink with baby bottles.

Meth residue often contaminates countertops, carpets show chemical spills,
and meth oil, a solvent that contains suspended meth, is commonly stored in
the refrigerator or freezer, Runge said. All usually are within the reach
of children.

Less than a year after Stanley and other deputies busted Walker at his
Finley home for meth manufacturing, the same Schuster Road house was being
used by another couple to make meth.

When their meth-cooking operation ignited a fire, Lisa Budde and her
boyfriend, Terry Lynn Snyder, carried their meth-making ingredients outside
before returning to get her 3-year-old daughter, whom they had left inside
the burning house.

The girl was placed in foster care.

"The children ... they're the biggest victims," Stanley said. "They don't
have a choice. They can't leave."