TENNESSEE REMOVING CHILDREN FROM HOMES IN METH ARRESTS

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - An increasing number of Tennessee parents caught
cooking poisonous chemicals to make methamphetamine and using the drug to
get high are paying a big price: custody of their children.

The state has taken 488 children from parents caught making or using the
illegal, addictive stimulant since Jan. 1, 2002, according to the Tennessee
Department of Children's Services' first such report.

The children, who can be removed immediately from the homes, are placed
with foster parents or relatives who can pass state evaluations and home
inspections.

Some methamphetamine users lose custody of their children permanently.

Of the removals of children, 273 were in rural Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie,
Bledsoe, Bradley, Franklin, McMinn, Meigs, Rhea and Polk counties in
southeastern Tennessee.

The mountainous region has seen a rapid rise in methamphetamine use and
manufacture in the last few years. Experts say the drug is more prevalent
in sparsely populated communities because it is easier to hide the
offensive odor of the labs.

"I don't think that in reality they really don't love their kids anymore,"
said Diane Easterly, the department's team coordinator for Grundy, Franklin
and Marion counties. "It is on a different wavelength. They just don't
think. This poses such a risk to children. You are just cooking poison."

Vapors from cooking methamphetamine can cause respiratory problems,
headaches, nausea, rashes and sores. Exposure to fumes can cause loss of
consciousness and even death, and the labs sometimes explode and burn.
Long-term methamphetamine use can create paranoia and hallucinations.

A year-old state law is making it easier to remove children who are exposed
to methamphetamine labs by defining such cases as severe child abuse.

Clothing, toys and other belongings are considered contaminated by such
exposure. And when parents are arrested, often at night, children are
forced to leave home with nothing. Contaminated belongings must be removed
by workers wearing gas masks and protective suits.

Dr. Sullivan Smith, a Cookeville physician and police officer who has
worked for years to combat the drug, described the 488 child removals as
the "tip of the iceberg."

Dr. Smith said parents who make the drug typically neglect their children's
health and emotional needs.

"Then you've got all that chemical exposure on top of it," he said. "I
can't think of a much worse place for a kid to be."

Child protection case workers and law enforcement officers say profit is
not the reason people make methamphetamine.

Users get hooked and then pay for their habit by setting up home labs to
cook the drug, Mr. Easterly said. Methamphetamine is made with commonly
available materials .

"Physically once you get on it, there's only about a 5 percent chance
you'll ever break it. It's about a 95 percent relapse rate," Dr. Smith said.

Overall, 10,000 Tennessee children are in foster care.