NUMBER OF CHILDREN TAKEN FROM METH-USING PARENTS ON THE RISE IN MESA COUNTY

Mice and cat feces cover the floor. Flies coat the ceiling. On the
counter and stove are separated chemical solutions, tubes and Pyrex
dishes filled with volatile substances. But the worst part about
walking into a kitchen-turned-methamphetamine-lab, police say, is
seeing a 3-year-old and 6-year-old crawling around in the muck.

In Mesa County, it's becoming a more common occurrence for police and
social workers to find children who have been exposed to
methamphetamine and its harmful chemical components.

About 75 percent of child custody cases handled by the Mesa County
Department of Human Services involve methamphetamine, according to a
recent study. So far this year, 175 children have been removed from
their homes, and methamphetamine has been a primary reason for 38
percent of the removals. In the other cases, children are taken from
their parents because they're abused or neglected, but often
investigation by social workers reveals methamphetamine use is a
contributing factor.

The impact on these children begins the moment their parents start
ingesting the drug, says Joseph Jueschke, a lead social worker at
DHS. The obsessive mental states, propensity for violence and
increased sex drive that come with methamphetamine addiction can lead
to physical or even sexual abuse of children, he said. Often, the
children of meth addicts are simply forgotten.

"There's a high correlation between neglect and methamphetamine,"
said Jueschke.

Meth addicts sleep for long periods of time when they come off the
drug, leaving their children basically unattended.

Jueschke remembers a case about five years ago when a 3-year-old was
found wandering the streets alone at about 8 a.m. When police asked
her what happened, she said, "Mommy's dead."

The toddler's mother, a meth user, had been involved in a violent
domestic disturbance the night before. She wasn't dead, but she was
totally unresponsive, to the point where a screaming 10-month-old
baby in a crib right next to her hadn't awakened her.

In addition to not meeting their children's physical needs, parents
who use meth tend to be emotionally unavailable, which stunts
children's emotional development and hinders their ability to communicate.

"I've carried 2- and 3-year-old children away from the home that are
as attached to me when we get to the office as they were to their
mother when we left," Jueschke said.

Children living among meth users also become highly independent, with
older siblings acting as caretakers for infants and toddlers.

"I've talked to 5-year-olds that can tell you how to make a bottle,"
he said. "... Sometimes what we're seeing is the older children are
being kept home to take care of the younger children, so they're not
going to school."

When the children do go to school, the methamphetamine at home can
cause problems there, too.

"I've talked to children who have unknowingly taken methamphetamine,
packaged for distribution, to school in their backpacks," Jueschke said.

A middle school student a couple of years ago alarmed police when
drug-sniffing dogs stopped at her locker.

"Her locker was the only locker in the school that the drug dogs
identified. There were no drugs in it, but later the drug task force
raided her house, and there was a meth lab," Jueschke said.

In 2002, the Mesa County Department of Human Services cited parental
drug use as a reason for 17 percent of its out-of-home child
placements. By last year, at 37 percent, that figure had more than doubled.

There's little medical research into what effects methamphetamine and
its chemical ingredients have on children, according to Grand
Junction Police Lt. Tim Grimsby, who gave a presentation earlier this
month to the Mesa County Methamphetamine Task Force.

"Will they get sick? Who knows? We don't know," he said.

Some jurisdictions on the Front Range and in other states administer
medical tests on children removed from homes where methamphetamine is
made or used. The test results, and the results of future periodic
testing, are used to study the effects the drug and its toxic
chemical ingredients have on children. The practice is not yet in use
in Mesa County.

Jueschke said children exposed to methamphetamine, either through
ingestion or airborne chemicals, experience upper respiratory
problems and are at a higher risk for those problems.

At any given time, Mesa County DHS oversees an average of 300
children who have been taken out of their homes because of abuse,
neglect or an otherwise unsafe home environment. In August, the
department had open cases involving 335 children, a record high in
the last 12 months.

Child custody cases that involve methamphetamine are more complex
than those DHS has handled in the past, said Jill Calvert, DHS child
intake supervisor. The "chaos" often found in the home environments
strains resources and staff, she said.

Meth addicts get paranoid, leading many of them to carry weapons. For
safety, social workers often travel in pairs or with a law
enforcement officer, Jueschke said.

"I don't have a badge. I don't have a gun. I don't have protective
armor," he said. "I'm knocking on your door to talk about your kids,
which is a very touchy subject."

Because children whose parents use meth have a much higher tendency
to try the drug themselves, the children and adolescents DHS deals
with often show signs of withdrawal or have their own addictions, Calvert said.

The displaced children usually end up in the custody of relatives or
in foster homes, and often siblings can't stay together, according to
Emily Witte, resource team manager at DHS.

Mesa County consistently lacks enough foster and adoptive families to
care for children who have nowhere to go, Witte said. Even infants,
which the department has seen more of recently, are difficult to
place, she said.

"We never have enough foster homes," Witte said. "We're managing, but
we always need more homes."

Once children are taken out of their homes, their parents get one
year to turn their lives around and regain custody. Many parents
never change, and their children grow up in foster care or with
adoptive families, Witte said.

There are some cases, however, of parents kicking their addictions
and being reunited with their children, Jueschke said. One man, the
father of six, went into the Salvation Army's rehabilitation program
at the same time as his wife. She couldn't stop using, but he went on
to change his life and get his children back.

"Over the years you have successes and you have failures," Jueschke
said, pausing for a moment as if to remind himself of something. "You
have successes; the failures aren't yours."

Nationwide, the most common treatment for methamphetamine addiction
is known as the Matrix Model, which involves a holistic approach to
changing the addict's lifestyle, Calvert said. The Matrix, she said,
is successful only 40 percent of the time.

In the Grand Valley, most methamphetamine treatment programs last 21
days, Jueschke said, but the most success comes from programs that
last six months or more.

"Getting sober in this community, as small as it is, is difficult.
It's a battle, and that's what my clients tell me," he said.

Because funding and other resources are stretched thin, Jueschke
said, children who inadvertently get wrapped up in the
methamphetamine culture locally aren't getting the attention and
services they need.

"Our children are our most under-defended group. Our children are
going to be running our country, and right now, I don't think we're
meeting their needs," he said. "I don't think we're doing enough, and
unfortunately, those kids aren't going to be successful."