PLAN WOULD PROTECT KIDS FROM METH

Parents Who Use Drug Are Targeted

GAUTIER - Mississippi is finally working on a plan for children who live in
danger of addiction, burns, neglect and death because their parents cook
and use methamphetamine.

A conference this week in Jackson brought together the people who have the
power to address the problem and make a difference, from judges to state
leaders.

And one local agency is hopeful and inspired.

"We've talked about drug-endangered children before in Jackson County,"
said Kathy Best, director of the Jackson County Children's Services
Coalition, "but we hit too many roadblocks. There was too much for us to
figure out, too many agencies and too many obstacles."

Best, whose private, nonprofit group focuses on ways to help children, said
the most complicated obstacle to giving these children immediate help was
that every agency involved had a different objective.

Law enforcement or narcotics agents would respond to the illegal drug use,
but leave the children for social workers later, she said. "Dealing with
that was more than we could figure out."

Agents at the conference explained that bringing in a social services
worker any sooner could jeopardize the drug bust and risk lives.

But the conference, which was sponsored by the state Bureau of Narcotics,
has started the wheels moving that will solve those problems, she said. It
involved the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, district
attorneys, Department of Human Services supervisors, judges and law
enforcement agents.

Claiborne "Buddy" McDonald, district attorney for Pearl River and nearby
counties, pointed out that when law enforcement agents come in to clean up
a meth lab, they wear protective hazard suits in the same house where
children had been running around unprotected.

"Some of these children test positive for the drug," McDonald said.

McDonald takes it a step further.

"I think there should be a separate statute addressing endangerment of a
child in this situation," he said. He hopes the group will propose
legislation that will adequately cover the problem of child endangerment in
general.

"Tighten up the laws we have now," he said.

And as a result of it all, the Children's Services Coalition has been
inspired and encouraged to apply for a meth prevention initiative grant
from the federal government.

By the numbers

Number of Mississippi children involved in methamphetamine arrests,
according to the state Bureau of Narcotics:

2002 - 64

2001 - 29

These are state agency statistics and do not include county arrests when
state officials are not involved.