CHILDREN OFTEN METH'S INNOCENT VICTIMS

Drug Blamed for Increasing Total of Foster Children

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 said 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 so 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.

Marchino estimates about half the children on the rural county's
roster are there because their parents used, made or sold meth.

Unfortunately, it is the counties with the highest unemployment rates
and fewest resources to deal with the problem that appear to be most
affected, said Glenn Cardwell, director of the Vigo County (Ind.)
Office of Family and Children.

Nearly 40 of Vigo County's 180 foster kids have parents mixed up with
meth, costing the county about $150,000 annually. Foster care costs
from $16 to $20 per day, depending on the age of the child.

"Our frustration is that it is taking up a lot of resources that we
really don't have," Cardwell said. "We don't have the budget to deal
with it. If we deal with additional kids here, that means we're
shorting kids somewhere else."

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 found in a
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
suffered from a meth lab explosion that occurred when a space heater
was turned on, authorities said. His parents were charged in the death.

Jackie Hofmann, a family case manager in Vigo County, said she has
counseled scared children whose parents were injured in a meth lab
explosion.

"We get more and more reports every day," Hofmann said.

Parents high on meth are beyond considering logical problems that may
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.

The side effects of methamphetamine use can reduce abusers' ability to
be good parents, Marchino said.

"They're very easily excitable. They can become paranoid on the drug,"
Marchino said. "Then when they come down from their meth high, they
can crash out for several hours at a time, and basically they're
completely out of it."

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 believes 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.