PROGRAMS RESCUE KIDS AT METH SITES

INLAND: Riverside County hopes to expand the help given to children found
at illegal drug labs.

When Hemet police discovered a methamphetamine lab at a motel earlier this
year, they found a lot more than caustic chemicals and almost-finished
product; 25 children were in nearby rooms, breathing harmful fumes through
a shared ventilation system.

The situation is far more common in Riverside and San Bernardino counties
than law enforcement and health officials would like. Authorities often
find so-called drug-endangered children living in or near homes where
parents or other adults are cooking up batches of the illegal stimulant.

Both counties formed teams to rescue children living in homes being used as
methamphetamine labs. San Bernardino County's program was significantly
scaled back when funding ran out, but officials may try to resurrect it. In
Riverside County, a federal grant approved last month is allowing that team
to expand.

Officials say the number of children found at drug labs has declined, which
could be attributed to increased penalties for cookers who are prosecuted.
The number of labs also has decreased, officials say, perhaps due to
vigilance from law enforcement, including limits on selling
over-the-counter meth ingredients.

Despite the decrease, the problem shows no signs of being eradicated in the
Inland area.

Riverside County sheriff's officials say they have counted more than 660
drug-endangered children in the six years they have been keeping track of
children at meth labs.

More than 70 percent of the children test positive for methamphetamine,
which adheres to just about every surface when the drug is being made,
Riverside County sheriff's Lt. Charlie Branscum said. Some children test
positive after crawling around the floor or after putting drug-laced toys
into their mouths, he said.

Helping Youths

Several agencies work together to form Riverside County's Drug Endangered
Children program, which pulls children from dangerous drug situations and
has them tested for exposure. Last month, Riverside County supervisors
accepted a grant for more than $296,000 from the U.S Department of Justice.
The grant money, slated to last until January 2006, will be used for hiring
a sheriff's investigator, crime analyst and research specialist for the
program.

Riverside County officials also will use part of the money for a motor home
to be used as a temporary shelter for the children.

The motor home will give investigators a place to take children where they
can change clothes, have food and water and watch television, said Todd
Bellanca, a supervisor with Child Protective Services in Riverside County.
He was on the team for three years.

"A lot of times when we get there, it takes time to work through meth
labs," Bellanca said. "Usually, children had to sit in a police car or a
social worker's car or outside. We did the best we could with blankets and
coats, but nothing is going to compare to this vehicle."

Bellanca said dealing with children in these situations can be difficult.
He recalls a story of a girl who had ingested lye, an ingredient in
methamphetamine that is also used to clean drains.

Another child interviewed by officials said his father had told him he was
making a new flavor of punch in the garage, Bellanca said.

"What is he going to try to do as soon as Dad is out of the room?" Bellanca
said of the child.

"Some of them that have pulled my heart strings are the little ones, and
you have to take them from their mother because the mother is being taken
to jail," he said.

Such children are placed with relatives, if possible, or placed in
protective custody, he said.

Finding Funds

In San Bernardino County, a pilot drug-endangered children program began in
the High Desert in 1999. It was funded by a one-time grant of $173,000 from
the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning. Similar programs are
operated in numerous other counties, including Los Angeles, Orange and San
Diego.

In 2002, the program expanded from Victorville and the High Desert across
San Bernardino County, thanks to a grant from First 5 San Bernardino, the
commission set up to distribute the county's share of tobacco-tax money.

When officials found children in places where meth was being made,
public-health nurses paid for by the grant joined social workers and the
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department at the site. Authorities
immediately tested children to determine if drug exposure had affected
their health.

Funding has run out for the program in San Bernardino County, said Jeff
Wagner, deputy director of Children's Services for the Rancho Cucamonga
region. And last year, organizers returned much of the grant money that
funded the program because they found far fewer endangered children than
expected.

"We're trying to resume it to get it back to the status it was," Wagner
said. "We're hoping to secure some grants for it."

The first grant money was strictly for the High Desert and ran from June
1999 to March 2002, Wagner said. In that time, officials helped 131
children. A second grant covered the entire county from August 2002 to
March 2004.

Since then, social workers have helped 12 children but are not being called
out on every lab as they had been in the past, Wagner said.

Wagner said law-enforcement officials are calling a meeting soon to try to
breathe life back into the program.

"It's difficult for agencies to sustain a program that is very expensive
.. with no funding," he said.