METH'S FORSAKEN CHILDREN - WHEN METH HITS HOME

(First in a Series)

When Parents Disappear Into A World Of Chaotic Drug Use, Danger And
Heartbreak Follow For Their Sons And Daughters

Methamphetamine is Georgia's fastest-spreading illegal drug problem, and it
is taking a mounting toll on children whose parents use the stimulant or
cook it up at home.

As parents get hooked, kids get trapped in households gone haywire. They
are neglected and abused. Their schooling suffers. And their health is
threatened by toxic fumes and explosive chemicals when parents turn
kitchens into home-based drug labs.

Georgia police and social service workers struggle -- and in many cases
fail -- to keep up with the drug's rising popularity and its impact on
children.

Horror stories are becoming common. Just last month, police found
drug-making chemicals beside a 7-month-old boy's crib in Bartow County,
northwest of Atlanta.

In August, an 8-year-old boy from the Macon area walked into a shed --
where police suspect his father was making methamphetamine -- and an
explosion blew the boy out the door. He was burned over one-quarter of his
body.

A Catoosa County infant, Chelton Hicks, was burned when his home erupted
into flames in 2001. Authorities accused Chelton's father of starting the
fire while cooking methamphetamine in a glass coffeepot. Four months after
the fire, Chelton died.

In recent years, the drug has surged across the state, said Vernon Keenan,
director of the GBI. "It came into Georgia like a tidal wave," he said.

>From 1999 to 2002, the number of Georgia meth labs raided by police
jumped from 29 to 395, according to GBI figures based on federal fiscal
years. In the 2003 fiscal year, which ended in September, the number shot
up to 439 labs.

>From January to Nov. 15 of this year, police found 61 children living at
or exposed to homes used as meth labs in Georgia, according to the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration. That already surpasses last year's total
of 52. But the DEA says the numbers could be much higher because some
police departments don't report their data.

Phil Price, the GBI agent who oversees drug enforcement in North Georgia,
estimates that children are found at half the homes raided for meth labs in
his region. But the busts represent a fraction of all home-brew labs. "That
leaves a lot of kids out there," Price said.

For drug users, methamphetamine -- which can be snorted, smoked, injected
or eaten -- has its own special appeal. It's cheaper than cocaine, and its
high can last 12 hours or more. People can buy an "eight ball" (an eighth
of an ounce) for between $100 and $250, which can keep them buzzing for
several days, boosting their energy and sex drive.

'Stuff straight from Satan'

Some people dabble in the drug, using it occasionally to dance all night or
study until dawn. But chronic use -- staying high for days -- can make a
person paranoid and aggressive. "The meth user, it's like an alien takes
them over," Keenan said. "They've got the body of the parent, but . . . an
alien has taken them over. Very capable of hurting their children."

In northwest Georgia's Catoosa County, about 20 percent of child abuse and
neglect cases involve parents using methamphetamine, county child welfare
officials say.

Paul Standridge, a 14-year-old who lives in Whitfield County in North
Georgia, repeatedly complained to his mother of pain from a problem with
the circumcision he received as a baby. She was caught up in
methamphetamine abuse and Paul didn't get surgery for two years.

Daniel Carr, 21, who lives near Dalton, spent his teenage years with a
meth-using father who fired gunshots into empty vehicles, fighting off
enemies only he could see.

"I wanted to help him, but I learned the hard way," said Daniel, recalling
fistfights with his father. "It's like trying to feed an alligator raw meat
with your hands."

His father doesn't argue with that.

"This stuff is straight from Satan," said Dana Carr, 41, whose years of
drug use broke apart his family and left him homeless for a time. "The
family goes all to hell."

DEA Chief Inspector Rogelio E. Guevara told members of Congress this
summer: "More than any other controlled substance, methamphetamine
trafficking endangers children through exposure to drug use [and] abuse,
neglect, physical and sexual abuse, toxic chemicals, hazardous waste, fire
and explosion."

People make the stimulant in their homes from a mundane assortment of
products that can include cold pills, matchbooks, coffee filters and lye.
Recipes are as close as the Internet. Metro Atlanta also is a major
distribution hub for methamphetamine smuggled from large labs out West and
in Mexico, Price said.

Children can accidentally swallow chemicals stored in kitchen containers.
They can absorb the drug and chemicals through their skin after touching
contaminated countertops and floors. Even if parents just use the drug and
don't make it, secondhand smoke can make its way into their child's lungs,
boosting the child's heart rate and blood pressure.

'These Kids are Mad'

Some researchers fear children raised by methamphetamine-using parents may
carry deep emotional scars into adulthood. The children are isolated and
exposed to all kinds of low behavior, they say.

"These kids are mad. They're shut off," said Grace Price, a Cherokee County
counselor who specializes in drug cases and is married to the GBI's Phil
Price. "It's tough to get them to talk, to get angry, to cry, to trust again."

Without a steady adult to guide them, some of these kids miss school and
get into trouble with the law, according to a report issued in June by the
U.S. Justice Department.

Dr. Randell Alexander, a pediatrician at Morehouse School of Medicine, said
parents on methamphetamine can become so wrapped up in the drug that they
disappear from a child's life.

"There is no adult present because they're impaired. . . . They might as
well be in the corner bar," said Alexander, who is also director of the
school's center on child abuse.

Some children get sucked into parents' methamphetamine-making life. They
start by keeping an eye out for police or running errands for ingredients
such as cold pills. Some use the drug, some learn to make it, law
enforcement officials say.

Methamphetamine's growing threat to children is forcing Georgia police and
child welfare workers to change their tactics.

The GBI and the state's child protection agency, learning from past
mistakes, have in the past year begun treating methamphetamine raids as
rescue missions for kids, officials say.

For years, the GBI would bust a meth lab, arrest the father and leave the
children with the mother. But agents often found themselves back at the
same address soon after, busting the mom or another family member for
making methamphetamine, GBI's Price said.

Now when GBI agents find children at meth labs, they call in social workers
to make sure the children are medically checked and sent to live someplace
safe.

But the GBI is not involved in every meth lab bust in Georgia, and local
police often don't have the training or resources to take the right steps
for children, Price said.

Child welfare caseworkers are not called in on every lab bust where
children are found.

In addition, caseworkers making routine home visits to troubled families
often lack the training to recognize the signs of a home lab, said
officials of the state Division of Family and Children Services.

Training for Caseworkers

Over the past year, GBI agents have started teaching caseworkers how to
identify household meth labs -- cases of cold pills, cans of lye, and a
stench like cat urine. About one-third of caseworkers statewide have
attended the training sessions so far.

Some children removed from labs are stripped at the scene because
authorities fear chemicals may have contaminated the children's clothing.
Then they are taken to a hospital for a medical exam.

Child welfare officials say this practice should be standard for all
children removed from labs, and officials are crafting it into a statewide
policy.

As methamphetamine destroys children's households, some kids are taken into
foster care. Georgia does not specifically track their numbers. Child
welfare advocates say the state should know more about the children that
methamphetamine drives into foster care.

Unless children are physically harmed, holding parents criminally
responsible for exposing their children to methamphetamine's dangers is
difficult, prosecutors say. Georgia's Legislature repeatedly has rejected a
child endangerment law, leaving Georgia the only state in the country
without one.

Consequently, the GBI is drafting legislation directly aimed at
methamphetamine-making parents who put their kids in harm's way.

Lawmakers in several other states already have passed laws to protect
children from methamphetamine. In Missouri, manufacturing the drug with
children present is now punishable by up to life in prison.

Even when police and social workers intervene, there are no easy answers.

Child welfare investigators recall a case two years ago in which four
parents were keeping 11 children in a motel room in Clayton County.

The children were barefoot, dirty and hungry. The parents were using
methamphetamine and marijuana, investigators said.

One boy's face had been burned when his mother, lighting up, ignited a
lampshade near the child.

But when the children realized they would be taken into foster care, they
panicked and started blaming themselves, authorities said. They begged to
stay with their parents.

"No matter what a parent does, a child is still going to love them,"
investigator Latrina Hollingsworth said. "Taking the child away can be
detrimental in itself."

Today, at least seven of the 11 children still receive counseling and
medication for emotional problems.

"You can have all the intervention you want, these kids still will have
baggage," Hollingsworth said. "They can have problems for life."

[SIDEBARS]

TODAY'S ARTICLES

. Meth's forsaken children . Paul Standridge: The struggle to trust again
. Chelton Hicks: A cruel way to die . Daniel Carr: Trapped in a parent's
nightmare . Ansleigh Davis: Yearning to become mom's child again . Brian
Keith Davis Jr.: From generation unto generation

ABOUT THE SERIES

Today and the next two Sundays, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will
feature a special report on a drug scourge sweeping Georgia. "When Meth
Hits Home" reveals the threat of methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant that
has become much more dangerous as it has become cheaper and more easily
available. Some users can even make their own from household ingredients
such as cold tablets and matchbooks. The GBI says it is Georgia's
fastest-spreading illegal drug problem. From Atlanta's urban clubs to rural
trailer parks, the drug is challenging law enforcement and social services
and tearing families apart.

. Today: This week's package on the impact of methamphetamine on children's
lives was written by Jill Young Miller and Craig Schneider, edited by Susan
Abramson, designed by Rick Crotts and copy-edited by Sharon Bailey.

. Dec. 7: "A Mother on Meth": The story of a young mother's descent into a
life ruled by methamphetamine, the impact on her own child and others, and
her own mother's struggle to save her.

. Dec. 14: "Georgia's Late Lessons": Georgia is behind other states in
learning to deal with a methamphetamine surge. What other states have to
teach Georgia lawmakers and law enforcement.

TO GET HELP

If you suspect that a family member or friend may be abusing
methamphetamine or another drug, you can call Helpline Georgia at
1-800-338-6745. The hotline offers support, advice and referrals to drug
treatment programs. Calls are confidential.

You also can contact the Georgia Department of Human Resources' Division of
Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. Its
offices provide help and referrals to drug treatment programs.

The division's metro offices (serving Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton,
Rockdale and Newton counties) are located at:

Citizens Trust Building
75 Piedmont Ave., 11th floor
Atlanta, GA 30303-2507
Phone: 404-463-6367

4329 Memorial Drive, Suite K
Decatur, GA 30032
Phone: 404-298-4990

The division's Web site is:

www2.state.ga.us/departments/dhr/mhmrsa/