FORMER METH ADDICTS SAY STATE FOOLISH TO CUT TREATMENT

HELENA - Regina Reinhardt hauled her two young children out of their
beds and made them hide some winter nights in a neighboring field. She
thought bad men were after them.

Paranoia drove her meth-addicted friends to shoot holes in the wall of
her Billings home at cops who weren't there. Dirty intravenous needles
were "hidden" in her kitchen cupboards.

"I thought I was being a good mom," Reinhardt said.

But a 20-year addiction to methamphetamine had taken its toll.
Reinhardt was a crank addict and an unfit parent. Her two older
children were already living with her mother, but her two younger
children, ages 4 and 5, were living -- surviving =97 with her. Until, one
day, they were taken away. And that was a good thing.

Reinhardt said she couldn't have gotten clean and sober without the
help of the people working for the state's Child and Family Services
Division. She's been off drugs and alcohol since 1994. She now helps
other women get through the nightmare of meth addiction.

The programs that helped Reinhardt and others like her are threatened
by budget cuts proposed for fiscal 2004 and 2005. Foster care may take
a $2 million hit because of the legislative mandate to roll funding
back to year 2000 levels in 2004 and 2005. In-home services that help
fragile families transition from foster care to home life are on the
chopping block, and the broad array of services in the $45 million
division of child and family services will be reduced.

"Meth is a huge problem in Montana," said Chris Purcell, bureau chief
of central intake for the division.

Meth is an incredibly addictive drug. Parents hooked on meth need
intense case management to kick the habit and put their lives -- as
well as their children's lives -- back in order.

In the state's urban centers, like Billings and Great Falls, nearly 80
percent of all the cases that Child and Family Services handles are
meth related. That number falls to about 15 percent in Helena.

The number of meth cases is on the rise across Montana. Just a few
years ago, 60 percent of the division's cases in Billings were meth
related.

Those without financial resources rely on the government for help. The
drug destroys lives.

Vince of Helena, who would only give his first name, said he was a
successful business man with six children and a wife before his
alcohol problem escalated into a full-scale methamphetamine addiction.
After six months of using the drug, his life began to crumble.

He became emotionally distant from his children. He fought constantly
with his wife. One of his daughters ran away from home.

In the summer of 2000, a major drug bust in Helena prompted Vince to
give up meth "cold turkey." He was back on the stuff by Halloween.

"When I got back into it, I was right where I left off," he
said.

His wife, his job and his house were gone. He placed his six children
in foster care. The wreck of his life was finally sunk.

"I made a decision one night to do something different," Vince
said.

Child and Family Services placed him in the Montana Chemical
Dependency Center in Butte. He admits he went there hoping to learn
how to live his life while managing his meth habit. The personal
testimony of a counselor convinced him to change for good.

"I remembered being sane at one point and I wanted it back," Vince
said.

Reinhardt said she, too, was finally overwhelmed by the horror of her
life. She never followed through with the six 30-day treatment
programs she had entered over the course of 20 years. The state had
seized her remaining two children in 1994. She had wasted her college
degree. She lost her house.

State family services workers finally told her she was dying, her
children were gone and she was headed for jail.

"I was destroying myself and they gave me a chance to find myself,"
she said.

After an intense 16-month outpatient treatment program, Reinhardt was
reunited with her children. She believes the division of family
services saved her family.

"I think it's a safety net the kids in the world need," she
said.

The safety net of state services for Montana's poor residents is
shrinking. With sweeping budget cutbacks and legislators' apparent
unwillingness to levy more taxes, more people are falling through the
safety net's widening holes, officials in the department of health and
human services say.

Purcell said the 30-day treatment programs the state places meth
addicts in aren't intense enough for most users.

"I think we set people up to fail," Purcell said.

But the handful of recovery centers that offer year-long inpatient
treatment, like Michel's House in Billings, are filled to capacity.
And four people are waiting in line for every bed that's filled.

People who have been through the system believe in
it.

"I think they're making a grave mistake if they cut the budget," Vince
said. "They'll have to build prisons."

Vince knows firsthand the frightening explosion in popularity of meth
in Montana. He still goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every day
for support. He takes his journal with him to chronicle all his clean
and sober days. He hopes legislators come to their senses.

"It's a disease that needs to be treated," Vince said