CHILDREN AT RISK AS METH USE SPREADS

Foster-Care Rolls Have Multiplied, Authorities Say

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. -- The physical withdrawal from methamphetamine Teresa
Cannon could handle. It was knowing what she had done to her children, then
ages 7 and 10, that made her cringe in her jail cell.

"I forgot about my kids," Cannon said of the four years she spent cooking
and smoking "boats" of meth while her kids fended for themselves.

"Looking back at the way they had been treated, you hate yourself. I was so
ashamed. So ashamed."

When Cannon went to jail, her children, now ages 9 and 12, lived with her
sister-in-law. Now they're back with their mother. But other children of
meth parents aren't so fortunate.

Authorities have seen fostercare rosters multiply because of the drug that
has spread in Kentucky and Indiana in recent years.

With meth, "the parents are the users and the children are basically the
innocent victims," said Larry Marchino, director of the Office of Family
and Children in Knox County, Ind.

Unfortunately, it is the counties with the highest unemployment rates and
fewest resources to deal with the problem that appear to be most affected,
said Glenn Cardwell, director of the Vigo County Office of Family and
Children in Southern Indiana.

Nearly 40 of Vigo County's 180 foster children have parents mixed up with
meth, costing the county about $150,000 annually. Foster care costs from
$16 to $20 a day depending on the child's age.

In Kentucky, police try to call child-protection officials before a drug
bust so they can be on the scene, said Joseph Abel, an official with the
seven-county Green River Region of the state Cabinet for Families and Children.

Most counties don't have figures for the percentage of children in foster
care because of methamphetamine. But Abel believes there has been a sizable
increase in recent years.

Nationally, the Drug Enforcement Administration reports that children are
nearby as the drug is made 20 percent of the time.

Earlier this month, an Eastern Kentucky man was arrested on
child-endangerment and drug charges after a working meth lab was allegedly
found in a car along with a child.

Because of the danger of the household chemicals and fertilizer anhydrous
ammonia, children can be more at risk with meth than most other drugs.

In 2001, a 15-month-old boy died in Rossville, Ga., of injuries suffered
from a meth lab explosion that occurred when a space heater was turned on,
authorities said.

Jackie Hofmann, a family case manager in Vigo County, said she has
counseled scared children whose parents were injured in a meth lab explosion.

"We get more and more reports every day," she said.

Parents high on meth are beyond considering logical problems that may
result from their children being around the drug, authorities say.

"When someone's addicted to a drug, it becomes the most important thing in
their life," said Cheyenne Albro, who directs the Pennyrile Drug Task Force
in Western Kentucky. "It takes precedence over sex, their family and jobs,
morals, beliefs, and it changes their entire life."

Cannon met Albro when he kicked down her door one night and arrested her
husband. She came clean during the 5 1/2 months she served on meth charges
at the Christian County jail, and she now assists the Hopkinsville-based
drug task force in training law enforcement about the meth cooking culture.

"You'd sell your soul, and I guess you do, really. God. Family. No one
matters," Cannon said, describing what a person feels on meth.

Cannon said she justified her drug cooking by saying it was to provide for
her children after her husband started serving a 10-year sentence on meth
charges.

"But it wasn't for anybody but me and my habit," she said.