METH ADDS TO ABUSE PROBLEMS, AUTHORITIES SAY

SIERRA VISTA - Last summer, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever
estimated 80 percent of all non-drug related criminal cases
prosecuted locally were directly related to methamphetamine use.

Sierra Vista police Chief Ken Kimmel correlated increases in city
property crime to the proliferation of meth.

Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer's best description of a meth
user is of a malevolent zombie one sees in the movies, their former
personalities decimated by the cycle of addiction.

Criminal justice and health and social services professionals remain
grim in reflection that a full recovery from meth addiction is
unlikely, said Troy Siler, Sierra Vista Regional Health Center
manager of emergency services. About 10 people a week visit the
hospital expressing some desire to kick a meth or cocaine addiction,
Siler said.

Historically, substance abuse is the most common catalyst for
domestic violence, and methamphetamine is no exception. When families
are destroyed by meth, innocent children suffer the
consequences.

When people under the influence of meth end up at Sierra Vista
hospital's Emergency Department, they often must remain for a few
days until they "come down" and are no longer a danger to themselves
nor others, thereby hospital staff is further burdened, Siler said.

"We have to deal with the issue, and it slows us down," he said.
"It's become resource intensive for the whole community."

Darlene Herlinger, the hospital's emergency medical service base
coordinator and an emergency medical service trainer at Cochise
College, interjected: "It ties up the entire staff, and it ties up
law enforcement, often times, having to stay here."

Police officers and social workers who have field experience with
meth use and meth houses can tell stories that are as sickening as
they are heartbreaking. The stories include those of children
suffering in horrific, poisonous neglect, and the filth and squalor
of a home-turned-meth-lab.

Children near meth

Like other crime trends, those against children are aggravated by
meth use, and local collaborative professionals such as the Cochise
County Children's Justice Project are working together to improve the
system insofar as resources and bureaucracy may allow.

It is the legal and ethical obligation of medical professionals to
notify police if child endangerment, abuse or molestation is
suspected. When it comes to suspected drug abuse, the implications
are different, unless the drug use is combined with child
maltreatment.

As with child abuse, neglect and molestation, there is significant
public aversion to confronting the meth epidemic.

"I think the public doesn't realize the overall tragic effects of
meth and they're afraid to report it to officials," Herlinger said.
"They don't want to be involved. They think law enforcement's not
going to do anything."

It is documented that some 3 or 4 percent of the children of meth
addicts are physically or sexually abused, Herlinger said, but that
leaves latitude for unknown cases.

Meth labs require chemicals that are poisonous, noxious and
explosive.

Often, neglect issues are observed first, Siler said. Or it may be
ear infections and respiratory complaints surface when a youngster is
exposed to meth use or production in the household.

And it takes usually more time before an illness can be connected
with a child's exposure to dangerous surroundings, Siler said.

Similarly, all sorts of mental and physical diagnoses can arise,
because of meth use that a patient does not disclose to a doctor,
Herlinger said. Conditions such as paranoia, anxiety,
schizo-effective disorders, and incidental physical problems like
oral disease, are among multiple diagnoses that can stem from meth
use.

From exposure to secondhand smoke, children tend to have an increase
in asthma diagnoses, Siler said.

Family members who bring an ill loved one to the hospital, who, for
example, suffers universal symptoms such as chest pains, shortness of
breath or fever are often unaware the root of their loved one's
problem is meth, Siler said.

About 4 percent of local emergency medical service calls are for
behavioral issues, much of which, Siler said, is probably meth related.

Child maltreatment in homes where meth is present is common, Siler
said.

For example, about three years ago in Huachuca City, a child got into
the mother's boyfriend's meth stash and ate it and had to be taken to
the hospital.

The hospital had to call social services, Siler said. The child had
to be removed from the family and placed in protective care.

Meth labs can be sophisticated, possibly existing without the
knowledge of house mates. They can even present aa health threat to
neighbors.

"Meth is no respecter of persons," Sheriff Dever said, "and its
victims are clearly some of the most tragic that you'll ever come
across."

He said the meth epidemic spreads across socio-economic boundaries in
the community, even as far as meth dealers lacing candy with meth to
market to children.

"The criminal aspect is extremely costly, but the damage in terms of
humanity is much greater," he said.

Connections are usually made between meth and child victims after
criminal investigations have begun or prosecution is under way.

The Arizona Drug Endangered Children multidisciplinary/integrated
protocol created several years ago by a state task force bearing a
similar name is available online at the Arizona Attorney General Web
site, and the task force welcomed implementation of that protocol
through local jurisdictions.

The ADEC protocol outlines ways Child Protective Services, law
enforcement and medical personnel can cope with the meth epidemic as
it applies to child victims. ADEC protocol lists resources, statutes,
how to begin a drug-endangered children team, and explains why
exposing children to drugs and clandestine meth labs is child abuse.

The task force's 2003 research indicates that a meth cooker will
train 10 others within the first year.

The Cochise County Children's Justice Project, under the auspices of
the Cochise County Health Department, is pushing for stronger
drug-endangered children protocol, said Renee Lee, the perinatal
outreach coordinator at the health department.

"There is a push toward that," Lee said. "If there is a child in a
meth house (and they die), the autopsy needs to be performed by a
state medical examiner who is familiar (specifically with meth
forensics) rather than a local medical examiner."

Urban counties often have a first-response meth team, which
specifically trains to be the first responders when a meth lab is
discovered by authorities and shut down. The team members are trained
in First Aid, hazardous materials handling, forensics and tactical
police methods together.

In rural counties, meth-team funds and personnel aren't easily
available. And in Cochise County, there is no such meth team.

"Whereas, here, it's whoever shows up," Lee said.

Other obstacles

A recent Cochise County Superior Court case disappointed the
investigating Sierra Vista police detective and the Cochise County
attorney, as a misdemeanor plea deal was taken by the parents of a
baby boy who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome after what
investigators believe was exposure to meth smoke in the parents'
bedroom. Because of statutory burdens of proof, the drug evidence was
not legally sufficient for a felony conviction.

The detective felt the death was connected to the drug use, and the
county attorney felt the presence of the drugs around the baby ought
to be a stand-alone felony.

Arizona Attorney General's Office spokeswoman Andrea Esquer said
there appears to be no discussion about pending legislation to
strengthen the laws with respect to children endangered by meth and
meth labs. About two years ago, a law was created whereby people
cooking meth around young children could be charged with child
endangerment, even if the child is not in their care, Esquer said.

Federal law and some municipal laws throughout Arizona have been
enacted to require certain cold medicines be stored behind retail
counters because they are used in homemade methamphetamine recipes.
Esquer said the Attorney General's Office would like to see a blanket
state law to provide for stricter enforcement of the
behind-the-counter law.

Sierra Vista police Detective Mertie Stompro said he also hasn't
heard of any new legislation pending to strengthen state criminal
laws in regard to drug-endangered child victims.

When the crack cocaine epidemic was battled by the nation's police in
the 1980s, legislation was relatively quickly enacted that required
mandatory prison for anyone possessing 450 milligrams of crack,
which is a relatively small amount, Stompro said.

But during the meth epidemic, mandatory prison still only is pursued,
per criminal statute, for offenders possessing 9 grams of meth or
more, Stompro said.

"They still haven't listed it," he said.

The interagency and interorganizational Children's Justice Project
meets monthly and consists of professionals such as police,
prosecutors and social and health workers.

All agree a health and family advocacy center in Cochise County is a
logical next step to enhance Southeastern Arizona's amenities, though
challenges exist in the funding and staff for such an advocacy center.

The Children's Justice Project is co-chaired by Lee and Bob Klein,
the Cochise County Victim Witness program coordinator.

Klein said awareness is as important as money for reaching these
local goals.

"If you raise public awareness, then people realize there's a problem
here and people need to get involved," he said.

A family advocacy center, Lee said, would take a more preventative
approach than the one generally taken by the Cochise County Health
Department.

As a neutral resource coordinated through the Health Department to
aid situations that have gone beyond prevention, the envisioned
center would offer easy access to prosecutors and law enforcement
agencies, Lee said.