APPALACHIAN LABS COOK METH AND MAKE ORPHANS

Groups Try To Help Kids Affected By Drug Trade

BOONE -- When authorities raid a methamphetamine lab in a rickety trailer
or mountain shack in Western North Carolina, they use handcuffs on the
grownups.

On the children, they use hoses, scrubs and soap. They decontaminate them
on the spot and throw away their toxin-tainted possessions, be they Dale
Earnhardt T-shirts, teddy bears or security blankets.

"Everything goes," said Roslyn Thompson, a Watauga County social worker.

Children frequently are present when authorities bust meth labs, most of
them kitchen-sink operations that "cook" methamphetamine out of household
chemicals. Methamphetamine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug that
affects the central nervous system. It is made with relatively inexpensive
over-the-counter ingredients and is a growing problem in many parts of the
country.

As law officers increasingly focus on the danger that the toxic labs pose
to children, mountain communities across Appalachian North Carolina and
Tennessee are coming to the aid of dispossessed youths. In some towns,
residents are building group homes and taking in children. In other areas,
business people and Brownie troops are donating clothes and toys to replace
contaminated belongings.

Up Meat Camp Road in a steep valley outside Boone, black-painted pickups
and broken-down shacks are the manifestations of a hollow where "there's
six labs cooking right now," said Harry Ray, a car mechanic who has lived
in the valley most of his life.

As the meth trade moved east from California and through the heartland over
the past 30 years, it has found a home in a region where the federal
government and moonshiners once battled over another illicit enterprise.
The annual number of busts in Watauga County increased from 10 to 40 over
the past two years, with eight taking place within Boone's town limits.

The problem ranges across the state. In 1999, SBI agents investigated nine
labs, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Last year agents
shut down more than 130. There were raids in the Triangle region last year
in Johnston and Chatham counties.

Meth producers "have an understanding that if they get caught with a meth
lab, they may not be able to keep their children," said Maj. Paula Townsend
of the Watauga County Sheriff's Department. "A lot of people do care about
that, but, unfortunately, we have some people who don't seem to care.
There's a lot of community concern right now, particularly because there
are children involved in many of the meth labs that we discover."

Last year, Kaye Warren of Boone became disturbed by news of meth cookers
dumping caustic byproducts into the cold waters of the valley streams. Her
focus changed abruptly when she heard Watauga County Sheriff Mark Shook
tell of toddlers crawling on fume-covered floors and schoolchildren put to
work in the labs.

"I went in with my environmentalist hat on and came out with my grandma hat
on," said Warren, a public relations manager at High Country Honda.

She started one of a growing number of private and public programs to help
the region's rapidly growing legions of meth orphans. Project Holiday Elf
gathered hundreds of toys and clothes items from business people and
residents around Watauga County, and will be revived this year.

A week before Christmas, Warren's Project Holiday Elf filled a room with
toys and clothes and held a one-day "Toy Store" for dispossessed children
to replace lost teddy bears and dolls. Several dozen foster families showed
up and cleaned out the store's bins.

As the drug has gained a foothold in North Carolina, the need for foster
care has exploded, and radio stations are airing ads urging people to
become foster parents. In Boone last year alone, the rolls of foster
children jumped from 15 to 40 in a nine-month period, Thompson said.

It's not just North Carolina authorities who are struggling to make room
for these meth orphans: "Our system is overwhelmed right now," said U.S.
Attorney Russ Dedrick in Knoxville, Tenn., where more than 500 foster
children have entered the system as a result of meth lab busts.

Community Rescue

Cumberland County, Tenn., in the foothills of the western Appalachians,
recently bought an old church and turned it into a foster group home mainly
for "meth orphans."

"Every time we've needed something, it's just shown up," said Butch
Burgess, the county sheriff.

In Boone, protocols for rescuing children are being fine-tuned, in
particular by involving social workers early in the process, involving
"decontamination" units at local hospitals, and organizing federally funded
cleanups of labs.

Already several other counties are starting to use those ideas. Residents
and therapists are jumping in to try to thwart an addiction that only 6
percent of users are able to shake. First Things First, a therapy clinic in
Boone, is run by a former addict who is now counseling not just addicts,
but meth orphans.

What's more, the Watauga County Department of Social Services just received
$30,000 from a federal grant given to the county to help meth orphans. Part
of the funds will buy cameras and other investigative supplies for use by
social workers. The county has changed the name of its meth task force to
the "Drug-Endangered Children's Program."

Authorities are working to help social workers and citizens spot -- or
smell -- the labs. One Watauga County man recently was arrested after a
dump worker noticed he was throwing away suspicious materials.

Sarah Lyerly, a social worker, said she was monitoring a home that got
busted. The materials were being stored in a closet adjacent to the
children's bedroom. "We felt terrible that this was going on right under
our noses," Lyerly said.

Ray, the mechanic, said the "drug thugs" seem to run rampant in their
hollows, despite the crackdown.

"The guys are out all night stealing, and the women go around selling
themselves for it," he said. He has caught more than one hubcap stealer by
staking out his own garage in the middle of the night. "A lot of people
here would like to see these bums thrown out."

Social workers are seeing that the community's growing resistance is having
an impact on meth cooks' consciences, even if it is not stopping the
epidemic itself.

"More people are cooking the meth away from their homes and their kids,"
Thompson said.

On the web: For more information, go to www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/states/
northcarolina.html