Pubdate: Sat, 29 Apr 2006
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2006 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH ADDICTS BURDEN CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

CHILD welfare workers saw it happening before most of us realized 
there was a problem. The rise of methamphetamine use and addiction 
wasn't taking a toll just on adults. The nature of the drug and its 
hold on addicts left scores of children abused, neglected, ill and in 
some cases, dead.

That's been the case in Oklahoma and many other states. Now it's a 
topic of discussion in Congress, where the Senate Finance Committee 
this week held a hearing on meth and its effects on social service 
agencies. The stories are all too familiar.

Montana officials reported 65 percent of the state's foster care 
placements can be attributed to drug use, with meth an issue more 
than half the time. Since the mid-1990s, the Oklahoma Department of 
Human Services has seen huge increases of children put in foster care 
because of parents addicted to meth.

Last fall, a law enforcement official said agents find children or 
toys present at about 70 percent of meth lab seizures. And while the 
number of meth labs is declining thanks to more restrictions on the 
sale of pseudoephedrine -- a primary meth ingredient -- meth use is 
still high among those of parenting age.

It's no wonder social services agencies find themselves more 
overburdened and overworked than ever. Children exposed to meth can 
suffer from a variety of health problems, making them even more 
difficult to place with relatives or in foster care. And the lure of 
the drug is so strong and cheap to come by, that many parents go back 
to using even after prison time.

In one particularly tragic Oklahoma case, an 8-month-old burned to 
death after he got stuck against a furnace while in a walker. His 
parents were nearby, but authorities said they were passed out from 
drug use and had been smoking meth in the days preceding the boy's death.

The Senate committee is without power to force parents to act more 
responsibility. But its work in figuring how to help social services 
agencies care for children scarred by their parents' meth use is time 
well spent.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom