DRUG WAR IS ABOUT 'SAVING THE CHILDREN'

Speakers Inform About Program to Help Kids Who Live With
Methamphetamine Producers

The drug war is about the kids, people attending a Battle Creek
conference were told Thursday.

"It is not about drugs, it is about saving the children," said Tim
Ahumada, a narcotics detective from Phoenix, Ariz.

Ahumada was one of several speakers who talked about a program
targeted to help children who are living with adults manufacturing
methamphetamine, a growing problem in western Michigan.

Called Drug Endangered Children, or D.E.C., the program was begun in
California and is practiced in several states, mostly in the west,
according to Nancy Becker Bennett, manager of the law enforcement
section of the Michigan Office of Drug Control Policy.

She said the conference for more than 300 people was designed to
explain the program and is a first step in perhaps bringing it to
counties in Michigan.

The conference was organized by the Michigan State Police, the
Michigan branch of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the
Michigan Department of Community Health, which includes the state's
Office of Drug Control Policy.

Those attending came from law enforcement, education, medicine, social
services and code enforcement from across Michigan, Becker Bennett
said. It was held in Battle Creek because the majority of
methamphetamine cases are in the western section of the state.

Speakers included representatives of law enforcement, Child Protective
Services, prosecutors and medical personnel.

And they spoke about the impact manufacturing the drug can have on
children.

Meth is most often made in home laboratories -- some small enough to
fit in a backpack -- with dangerous chemicals such as solvents and
lye. Manufacturing the drug sometimes leads to explosions and fire and
always results in residue of toxic chemicals.

Often the children found in the homes during drug raids are shuffled
off to other family members without knowing if the kids will really be
out of danger, speakers said.

Several speakers said social workers and police often have conflicts,
yet both are interested in protecting the children and that is why
D.E.C. was conceived.

The program is designed not only to help free the children from
households where drugs are being manufactured, but also to gather
evidence that shows those making the drugs are guilty of child abuse.

"Child endangerment is often overlooked," Ahumada said. But he said
social workers and police have to learn to work together to make the
program work.

"This takes a case from being a victimless crime to putting a face on
these crimes, and that is how you are going to save these kids," he
said.

Calhoun County Prosecutor John Hallacy attended the conference and
said the impact on children living with meth labs has been a topic
among prosecutors statewide.

"It should be an enhancement in the penalties," he said. "Drug dealing
is often violent, but meth is so different because it is so toxic."