CHILDREN OFTEN SUFFER MOST FROM PARENTS' METHAMPHETAMINE ABUSE

HOPKINSVILLE - The physical withdrawal from methamphetamine Teresa Cannon
could handle. It was knowing what she had done to her children, then ages 7
and 10, that made her cringe in her jail cell.

"I forgot about my kids," Cannon says of the four years she spent cooking
and smoking "boats" of meth while her kids fended for themselves.

"Looking back at the way they had been treated, you hate yourself. I was so
ashamed. So ashamed."

When Cannon went to jail, her children, now ages 9 and 12, lived with her
sister-in-law. Now they're back with their mother. But other children of
meth parents aren't as lucky.

Authorities have seen foster care rosters multiply because of the drug that
has spread in Kentucky, Indiana and other rural states in recent years.

With meth, "the parents are the users, and the children are basically the
innocent victims," said Larry Marchino, director of the Knox County (Ind.)
Office of Family and Children.

Nationally, the Drug Enforcement Administration reports that children are
nearby as the drug is made 20 percent of the time.

Earlier this month, an Eastern Kentucky man was arrested on child
endangerment and drug charges after a working meth lab was allegedly found
in the car -- along with a child.

Because of the danger of the household chemicals and fertilizer anhydrous
ammonium, children can be more at risk with meth than most other drugs
because it is often made in the home.

In 2001, a 15-month-old boy died in Rossville, Ga., of injuries he received
in a meth lab explosion that occurred when a space heater was turned on,
authorities said. His parents were charged in the death.

Parents high on meth are beyond considering logical problems that might
result from their children being around the drug, authorities say.

"When someone's addicted to a drug, it becomes the most important thing in
their life," said Cheyenne Albro, who directs the Pennyrile Drug Task Force
in Western Kentucky. "It takes precedence over sex, their family and jobs,
morals, beliefs, and it changes their entire life."

Cannon met Albro when he kicked down her door one night and arrested her
husband. She later came clean during the 51/2 months she served on meth
charges at the Christian County jail, and now assists the
Hopkinsville-based drug task force in training law enforcement about the
meth cooking culture.

"You'd sell your soul, and I guess you do, really. God. Family. No one
matters," Cannon said, describing what a person feels on meth.

Cannon said she justified her drug cooking by saying it was to provide for
her children after her husband started serving a 10-year sentence on meth
charges.

"But it wasn't for anybody but me and my habit," Cannon said.

In Kentucky, police try to call child protection officials before a drug
bust so they can be on scene, said Joseph Abel, an official with the
seven-county Green River Region of Kentucky's Cabinet for Families and
Children.

A parent's arrest is "extremely traumatic. Unfortunately, sometimes it
can't be handled as sensitively as we like because of the situation," Abel
said. "If you have police officers getting ready to arrest the parent, we
have to be there in terms of the aftermath."

Most counties don't have figures for the percentage of children in foster
care due to methamphetamine. But Abel thinks there has been a sizable
increase in recent years.

Child protection officials say they try to place children taken from their
homes with a relative, but if one is not available a child will go into
foster care.

Cannon cries each time she recalls the day she made pancakes for her then
7-year-old son after getting out of jail.

"He says, 'You're a real mommy now,'" Cannon said.