METH LABS TAKING A HEAVY TOLL ON KIDS

Neglected Children Often Found At Scene

TACOMA -- The mushrooming growth in the number of methamphetamine labs in
this state, generally viewed as a problem only for law enforcement, is
taking a heavy toll on children, speakers at an anti-drug meeting said
yesterday.

Children -- most of them under the age of 6 -- are found at the scene of
about one-third of the highly toxic and sometimes explosive meth labs raided
by police, officials attending the session at the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel were
told.

"They are isolated and living in poverty. They often have no toys and
usually don't go to school," said Dr. Yolanda Duralde, director of Mary
Bridge Hospital's child abuse prevention program.

"The toddlers are very violent in their play. By the fourth grade they are
hostile to people outside the home. And by the sixth grade they are using
drugs and usually it is with their parents' blessing."

Children being raised in homes where their parents are operating meth labs
for their own use and to sell to friends are more likely to be physically
and sexually abused than other children and they almost always are
neglected, she said.

Their parents go on three-day highs and then sleep for three days, leaving
the children unattended in garbage-strewn homes, Duralde said.

Those rescued from the conditions often have respiratory problems, sometimes
have delayed speech and language and are subject to higher levels of kidney
failure and leukemia, she said.

The large number of children found at meth lab sites has overloaded the
court system, where judges hold numerous hearings to determine whether the
children should be taken from their parents. If that happens, not enough
foster parents are available to care for the youngsters.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, and Gov.
Gary Locke attended the session and pledged to do all they can to find
increased money for programs to fight the meth problem and better coordinate
efforts throughout the state.

The summit meeting was the second to be held this month because of concerns
about the growing number of meth labs.

Police and state Department of Ecology officials predict they will deal with
nearly 1,600 of the highly toxic labs statewide by the end of the year.

DOE reported 789 meth labs statewide in 1999; 318 of them -- 41 percent --
were in Pierce County. That was nearly three times the 107 labs reported in
King County, second worst in the state.

The need for broad efforts to deal with meth use was supported by Ken Stark,
director of the state Department of Social and Health Services' alcohol and
substance abuse division.

"We know that treatment works," Stark said. "We see it all the time. But
then you send them back to live in that . . . low-income apartment building
where everybody else is shooting drugs or getting drunk. And they are at
risk again."