METH EPIDEMIC PUTS COUNTY CHILDREN AT RISK

Maybe one of the most telling facts reflective of what law enforcement and
social service personnel in Washburn County are calling a methamphetamine
epidemic is the number 14.

It does not sound like a large number, but it is huge when you understand
that the 14 are 14 Washburn County children, 14 juveniles who within the
last year have been removed from a home where a parent or a guardian has
been using the drug methamphetamine, or "meth."

Those 14 represent half of the 28 children Washburn County Health and Human
Services Department has placed in out-of-home care, according to Washburn
County Family Services Supervisor Joan Wilson.

She said there are several reasons why children are especially vulnerable
where meth is consumed in a home and why they need to be removed.

For one, she said, children are often neglected while a parent or parents
are under the influence of meth. A parent addicted to meth might be
consumed with acquiring the drug, and the welfare of a children becomes a
second priority. And often a user coming off several days of using the drug
will go through a phase where the user will sleep for a long period, even
several days in a row, leaving children without adult supervision.

"The fact is when we talk about meth, when the parents decide to use meth,
they are not thinking about parenting, and they are totally absent when
they are coming down from meth," said Washburn County Mental Health/Alcohol
and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) Supervisor Jim LeDuc. "You have opportunity for
physical and mental abuse through all those stages. Coke [cocaine] users
aren't very good parents, either. But they are not so preoccupied with
getting the coke, and the crash is not as bad." County social services
workers have taken children who are malnourished and unkempt, and they have
also seen some young people who are trying to hold their families together
as their parents are falling apart.

"We've seen some children take on adult roles in their homes just because
the parent is not there to take care of them or other children," said Wilson.

Another issue is children coming in contact with meth itself. Wilson said
she has seen cases where children could get it on themselves by running
their hands over a coffee tabletop where a user had spread the drug to cut
it with a razor blade. Smoking meth is the favored way of taking the drug,
and it can be absorbed in children's lungs.

If the parents are running a meth lab, the children are possibly exposed to
a toxic waste dump of chemicals, chemicals so bad that special toxic waste
removal teams in specialized white suits, costing thousands of dollars,
have to remove the chemicals when a meth lab is discovered.

Another concern is the exposure to direct physical or sexual abuse. One
side affect of heavy meth use is increased paranoia often accompanied by
violent behavior and presence of guns. Another side effect is an increased
sexual libido of the user. The behavioral changes in a parent or
user-friends puts children at more risk of experiencing a traumatic event
early in life. "When you have a 3-year old that is being kicked out of
early childhood class because the workers can't handle the behavior, that
was a child, we believe was exposed to methamphetamines in utero and also
witness domestic violence," said Wilson. However, Wilson adds not all
children display the same affects, or are effected the same way by meth.

Washburn County law enforcement and social service experts say they project
the number of kids they will have to remove from a meth environment will
probably only increase as meth epidemic in the county continues unabated.

An increases in more children in the system takes on some serious financial
concerns when one considers another number -- 16,000.

To pay for the variety of out-of-home care placements for the 14 children
the county pays out roughly $16,000 a month, now. Currently, the $16,000 is
spent for variety of programs, covering foster care with a relative ,
kinship care, (seven kids at $215 a month), county foster care with a
nonrelative ( four kids in out-of-county homes at $400 - $700 a month based
on needs of the child), a treatment home requiring more specialty (one
child at $2,300 - 3,000 a month), a group home setting for an older child
(one child at $4,000 - $4,500 a month) and the most expensive, a juvenile
correction facility (one child at over $6,000 a month) If you don't think
you are paying for the meth epidemic, think again. From January to July
2005, Washburn County Health and Humane Services spent almost $120,000 to
take care of kids who were removed from a meth environment, Wilson said.

"We can talk about dollars, but how do you measure the emotional impact on
children living in a drug environment?" said Wilson. The meth epidemic is
taking its toll on the lives of children as well as draining local
financial resources. A nationwide effort has been formed called Drug
Endangered Children (DEC) to address the problem in a comprehensive manner.

"What we have to focus on is that meth is a different drug," said Wilson.
"It affects people differently and quickly and when you have meth use going
on, you have some form of neglect going on."

In Washburn County several agencies have come together to form a DEC
protocol for responding to a situation where a child may be in a meth home.

Agencies involved include Washburn County Health and Humane Service
Department, Washburn County Sheriff's Office, Washburn County District
Attorney's Office, Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Spooner Health
System, and the police departments of Birchwood, Minong, Shell Lake, and
Spooner.

The introduction paragraph to the Washburn County DEC protocol explains its
purpose:

"The latest explosion of methamphetamine abuse has forced us to respond
more effectively and improve our response in drug abusing environments. We
have pooled our expertise to become a collaborative effort, have better
educated ourselves, and are determined to utilize all possible options to
protect the children from future harm of drug abusing environments."

In essence the protocol, defines all the agencies specific roles in
addressing situations where meth and children are sharing the same space.

Wilson said the first call of alarm usually comes from law enforcement. All
the different agencies are then alerted to stand by.

Often a Washburn County Social worker will follow deputies or police into
home after the home is secured and cleared for toxic chemicals.

The protocol defines several explicit steps for collecting evidence on the
scene, process a complaint, and caring for the children, including medical
exams and even a urine sample to see if the drug has entered the child's
system.

Children are interviewed and their description often the unimaginable.

"When you have small children describing drug related activities ... that a
child at that age should not have any knowledge of, it is frightening,"
said Wilson

Need For County Foster Homes

Washburn County has a need for in-county foster homes. Wilson said the
county will provide training and support for families desiring to take on
the role of foster parents. Those interested in establishing a foster home
should contact Washburn County Health and Humane Service, Family Services
Unit, Joan Wilson, 468-4747.