CHILDREN FALL BY WAYSIDE IN METH-ADDICTED HOMES

Burners sit on the bedroom dresser, next to a baby's crib. Soda bottles in
the refrigerator are filled with acid to cook the drug that has taken hold
of mom and dad. Meanwhile, children's stomachs are growling, their diapers
soiled.

The case notes and photos collected by Polk County child-welfare
investigators are evidence of the sad impact of methamphetamine -- a drug
so potent many users are more preoccupied with nurturing their addiction
than their children.

"I call it the 'walk-away drug,' " said Julia Hermelbracht, who oversees
child-abuse investigations in Polk and surrounding counties for the state
Department of Children & Families. "Even parents walk away from everything
they care about."

DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi told the Orlando Sentinel recently that she has a
gut feeling that calls to report meth-linked child neglect are on the rise,
although no statistics exist. To get a better handle on the extent of the
problem, DCF expects to track cases where the drug is involved. The data
could be used to follow the long-term effects of children exposed to meth
and help officials determine what resources are needed.

At the same time, DCF is developing new guidelines for child-protective
investigators who go to homes that contain hazardous meth labs to make sure
they don't endanger themselves. It's a dangerous environment. Explosive
ingredients abound and, when cooked, the drug becomes airborne, potentially
contaminating food, drinking water and clothing.

Usually smoked, snorted or injected, meth is cheap and easy to make in home
laboratories. The drug has long been around, but a surge of national
awareness in recent years has prompted more lab raids and more people
reporting suspected meth use.

Authorities in Florida busted 215 meth labs last year compared with 23 in 1999.

A major concern is the potential for child neglect, law-enforcement and
child-welfare officials said. Binges can last for days or weeks, leaving
children unfed and unkempt as parents crash into a deep sleep. Some
children who live in homes of meth users have been found with head lice and
baby bottles containing curdled milk.

"I have seen 2-year-olds that have been left alone long enough that they're
basically parenting themselves," said Beth Englander, DCF's director of
child welfare and community-based care.

In Central Florida, Polk County's child-welfare system has felt the brunt
of the impact from meth. Libbie Combee, who heads Mothers Against
Methamphetamine, a small faith-based support group in Polk, said she hopes
documenting the drug's impact on children will help the organization win
grants for a rehabilitation center for meth addicts.

"People have to realize that these families aren't going to change until
someone intervenes," said Combee, who had custody of her grandchildren for
almost a year during her son's incarceration at Polk Correctional
Institution on a variety of charges, including possession of methamphetamine.

Volusia County authorities said they have seized more meth labs at houses,
mobile homes and motels. Lt. Jim Ellinor, who is in charge of the Sheriff's
Office's narcotics units, said it is not uncommon to find children around
during operations. So far this year, the agency has busted six active and
eight inactive meth labs.

"I look at it personally as a form of child neglect," Ellinor said. "We
wear special types of clothing when we go into these places to protect
ourselves, so for their kids to run around that atmosphere, it can't be good."

The lieutenant recalled several instances in which meth-related
investigations started because someone in the community called about
children in homes where the drug was suspected of being cooked or used.
Although Volusia child-welfare officials said they haven't noticed meth's
impact, Ellinor said they eventually might, as local authorities seize more
labs and make more arrests.

Of the 9,777 meth labs seized nationwide in 2004, 2,464 children were
present or exposed to the drugs, according to federal statistics.

In Florida, 61 children were exposed at the 215 labs confiscated in 2004.
However, officials said those numbers may be low because the report doesn't
account for children whose parents are meth users but not makers.

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child
Protection Reform based in Alexandria, Va., said meth has swelled
foster-care rolls in some parts of the country. Wexler -- who is worried
that social workers' response to the problem is "to take the child and
run," an approach similar to the one used during the crack epidemic in the
late 1980s and 1990s -- said the focus should be on drug treatment.

"The question is: Do you take away the children, or do you take away the
drug abuse?" he said.