AGENCY LACKS TIME FOR NEW METH-EXPOSED CHILDREN TALLY

The Department of Children's Services hit a legislative nerve by deciding
employees probably won't have time to update a comprehensive count of
Tennessee children exposed to methamphetamine.

State Rep. Charles Curtiss, a member of Gov. Phil Bredesen's
methamphetamine task force, said legislators must have an updated count of
children exposed to the harmful drug in the state. The last one was
provided in August 2003. He said the figures are needed to help measure the
projected cost of task force recommendations due to the governor by Sept. 1
on how to fight meth's hold in Tennessee.

"That is data that I have got to know," said Curtiss, D-Sparta. Curtiss
said members of the legislature will use the count to make decisions about
costs when the task force recommendations become bills. "Once we get this
legislative package based on the task force recommendation . the only way
they can put a legitimate price tag on it, they are going to have to have
that data from DCS," Curtiss said. Paul Monteballo, the department's
director of performance enhancement, said Thursday that child protective
case workers would not take time to update the August 2003 report that
showed more than 600 meth-exposed children taken from parents in Tennessee
during the previous 18 months. "Given our staff workload, I would think
that is pretty unlikely," Monteballo said Thursday.

Monteballo and department commissioner Viola Miller had said last month
when they released a monthly report for April that the department also
would release a statewide count on the impact since last August. The 2003
report on the number of affected children showed that meth is more than an
isolated, regional problem. Law officers, prosecutors and child protective
workers have said this year that the popularity of the addictive stimulant
cooked at home with toxic chemicals is growing in Tennessee. Federal Drug
Enforcement Administration records show 1,253 meth labs were cleaned up in
Tennessee in 2003, the most in any state for the third straight year.

"It can make a parent disregard the health and safety of their child,"
Curtiss said. "I have not seen anything else that does that. My concern is
not just the cost but the jeopardy we are placing those children in by
leaving them in those homes." Monteballo said Thursday that the department
planned to just provide monthly reports in the future.

The report on April shows meth-related investigations involved 189
children, with the department having petitioned courts for custody of 77
children. It does not show a count of children removed from the custody of
their parents Monteballo said the May report would be released in August,
with other monthly reports to follow. He said the department already has a
count of 546 cases involving drug-exposed children or infants in May and
another 581 for June. Those totals include all abused substances, not just
meth. He said the department's computer program "doesn't say the drug is
meth." Monteballo said the computer program would eventually be changed to
identify specific drugs.

Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess said continuing a statewide count
of meth cases is essential to recognizing demands on related support
programs. The drug is made with commonly available materials such as cold
tablets, matchbook striker plates, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, lye and
muriatic acid, and cooking it produces poisonous vapors.

"Marijuana doesn't contaminate a house. Cocaine doesn't. Meth contaminates
the whole house," Burgess said. "I've had a lot of the cooks tell me that
cooking it is more addictive than using it." He said exposure to the
chemical vapors is devastating for meth users and their children.