Pubdate: Tue, 03 Apr 2007
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Copyright: 2007 Statesman Journal
Contact:  http://www.statesmanjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/427

TARGET PARENTS USING METH TO SAVE THEIR CHILDREN

With Help, They Can Become Clean, Get Their Kids Back

The face of meth is the face of a child. Members of  Salem's Drug 
Activity Response Team keep snapshots of  children's faces on their 
wall. That's how they get the  stomach to enter drug homes where bugs 
feast on dried  food and meth sits within easy reach of kids.

Yet the face of a child also can inspire a  meth-addicted parent to 
get well, authorities say.  During April, Child Abuse and Neglect 
Prevention Month,  the Statesman Journal will report on some of these stories.

Looking at the photo galleries of meth homes that  accompanied 
Sunday's Page 1 story, it's hard to believe  that some meth users are 
able to turn their lives  around.

The color photos online give a horrifying child's-eye  view of life 
for 14 kids in two Salem households where  adults were arrested on 
meth charges. Drugs so  dominated the parents' lives that they didn't 
keep  animal feces off the floor and didn't keep a clean spot  in the 
kitchen to prepare food.

For the past few years, the Mid-Valley has focused on  the front end 
of the meth battle, as it should: Get the  kids out of danger. Get 
them to a safe place. Prosecute  the parents before kids grow up 
thinking this is normal  and pass the same life on to their own children.

Civic leaders have awakened our community to these  needs. Scores of 
families have signed up to be trained  as foster parents. New homes 
have opened to take  children in a crisis, giving state workers time 
to find  foster families where siblings can stay together. A 
methamphetamine strike force has raised private funds  to supplement 
tax-supported law enforcement efforts.

As for the parents, authorities say many meth addicts  can get clean, 
given good treatment and time. It may  take a couple of years for the 
toxic effects of meth to  wear off. But locally, about 72 percent of 
kids  eventually return to the parent from whom they were  removed, 
or with another parent.

If that's the case, this community can't write off meth  addicts as 
beyond hope. We owe it to these children to  learn more about saving 
parents as well as kids.

So during this month, do something to help our abused  and neglected 
children -- nearly all of them the  "unintended consequences of 
meth," as local leaders  have said. Do something for our community's children.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine