METH USE DAMAGES KIDS, TOO

Training Program Airs Strategies; See Lab Scenes From a Child's Perspective

A shotgun rests on a sofa 36 inches from a little girl's baby doll. A pile
of knives sits on the floor by the entrance to the children's bedroom.
Syringes are in a drawer with a child's clothing.

Methamphetamine is on top of the coffee table and television. This is how
many children live when their parents or guardians are meth cooks or
addicts - or, usually, both.

Those scenarios were not entirely new to the social workers, law
enforcement officers, drug counselors and even some of the concerned
residents from across North Alabama attending a Methamphetamine Prevention
Training program Friday at Alabama A&M.

Cristi Cain and Laurie Harrison of the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention
Project presented Friday's sessions sponsored by U.S. Attorney Alice Martin
of Alabama and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. A show of hands
indicated no one in the audience had ever heard of Drug Endangered Children
strategies to help the children. "It's relatively new," said Cain. It
started in California after a mother of four had three of her children die
in a fire while she tried to destroy evidence of a meth lab - instead of
trying to save her kids. Children found in homes with meth labs often
suffer neglect, physical and sexual abuse, in addition to being exposed to
the harmful chemicals. "We had a lab not too long ago where there was a
little boy in there whose diaper had probably not been changed in two or
three days," said Scottsboro police Sgt. Scott Whited.

After Friday's training, he said he'll look at situations with kids
differently. There is already protocol in place on dealing with children in
a meth lab environment.

In the most recent incident, he said an ambulance was called for the child,
who eventually ended up in a Department of Human Resources foster home. The
strategies Cain emphasized included teaching law enforcement to start
looking at meth lab scenes from a child's perspective. It takes a little
more time, but getting the height of the children and then taking
measurements from that perspective in relation to dangerous elements in the
home can help to keep a child from returning to such an environment. A Drug
Endangered Children program involves law enforcement, child protective
services, a district attorney's office and medical personnel. All work
together for the best interest of the children. Clothing in all children's
sizes, stuffed animals, and things like toothbrushes and toothpaste are
kept on hand and readily available when children are found in that situation.

Many times, the children must be decontaminated before they can be taken to
a hospital for examination and treatment, said Cain. A simple preparation
like the clothing can help lessen that trauma, she said. It's up to each
community to set its protocol for dealing with drug-endangered children,
she said.

"It takes involvement on all levels."