NEW COUNT SHOWS METH SHATTERING TENNESSEE FAMILIES

CHATTANOOGA - Methamphetamine is shattering dozens of Tennessee families
each month, a new count of children placed in state custody shows, and case
workers see an increase in addicted babies.

The count requested by The Associated Press - 600 children taken from
parents involved with the addictive stimulant and placed in state custody
since the start of 2002 - does not include meth-displaced children who are
placed with relatives.

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services, in an incomplete count,
reported placing 112 rural children in foster care due to meth
investigations since March 1. A count provided the AP in late February
showed 488 children taken into state custody since Jan. 1, 2002, also
mostly in rural communities.

The new count included 53 children in the department's Southeast region, 46
in the Upper Cumberland and 13 in the Northeast region. DCS spokeswoman
Carla Aaron said totals of meth-related custody removals in other DCS
regions were not immediately available.

Aaron said that when children are removed from parents in meth cases, DCS
is taking all possible steps to place them with other relatives. She said
the apparent reduction in children going to foster care "don't reflect the
overall number of cases we are investigating."

"The investigations we are doing are continuing to rise but we are working
with families more to not bring kids into foster care," Aaron said.

Sandra Holder, DCS administrator for the SE region, said there were another
46 children since March 1 in the region who were placed with relatives or
with someone other than state custody.

"It may be getting worse," she said. "The thing that worries me too is what
it is doing to the unborn children."

Meth is made with commonly available materials - ephedrine from cold
tablets blended with hazardous materials such as drain cleaner (sulfuric
acid) and matchbook striking pads (red phosphorous).

Odorous vapors from cooking - sometimes on kitchen stoves - the hazardous
chemicals cause respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, rashes and sores.
Exposure can cause loss of consciousness and even death, and the labs
sometimes explode and burn.

Long-term meth use can create paranoia and hallucinations.

Clothing, toys and other belongings are considered contaminated by such
exposure. When parents are arrested, often at night, children are whisked
away with nothing. Contaminated belongings must be removed by workers
wearing gas masks and protective suits.

Diane Easterly, team leader for the department's SE region, said she just
returned from a foster parent conference and reports of "finding more and
more babies addicted."

Easterly said such newborns should be monitored and counseled as they grow
up to help them avoid addiction.

In Grundy County, a 3-week-old, meth-addicted baby born with a heart
problem in a hospital emergency room, is still being treated and fed
intravenously, said Wanda VanHooser, a state child protection investigator.

"The mother is out of the hospital doing her own thing. She has not been
charged with anything," VanHooser said Thursday. "The child is in state
custody. The child will leave the hospital with us."

VanHooser, who is not allowed to provide information about the child's
identity, said an "investigation is continuing. If the child dies, the
mother can be charged."

A state law that took effect in 2002 is making it easier to remove children
who are exposed to meth making by defining such cases as severe child abuse.

Aaron said the department is "doing a lot with families to try and identify
family members - grandparents, aunts and uncles - extended biological
families that are appropriate and that can care for these children rather
than bring them into foster care and placing them in a foster home, a
family they are unfamiliar with. We are making more effort at doing that.

She said the numbers "don't reflect the overall number of cases we're
investigating. Those are still going up. Unfortunately I don't have the
numbers to reflect that."

Federal Drug Enforcement Agency records in Chattanooga, Knoxville,
Nashville and Memphis show what agents describe as a growing popularity and
an apparent eastward migration of the drug.

Investigators have complained that sales of ingredients used in making meth
need to be controlled. Tennessee lawmakers this year refused to approve
such a measure.

State Sen. Larry Trail, D-Murfreesboro, who is chairman of the
Legislature's Select Committee on Children and Youth, predicted Thursday
that lawmakers will take action against meth next year.

He said it is "incredible how addictive it is and how awful it is."

On the Net:

Tennessee Department of Children's Services: www.state.tn.us/youth/

Drug Enforcement Administration: www.usdoj.gov/dea/

National Institute of Drug Abuse: www.nida.nih.gov