Meth abuse meets families, children (Indiana)

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060209/NEWS/602090328/1152

By Joe Gerrety
jgerrety@journalandcourier.com

February 9, 2006

The name and other identifiers on the drug screen report was blacked out before juvenile court Judge Loretta Rush circulated it among the 132 people who jammed the Mental Health Association meeting room Wednesday.

But Rush pointed out where the document indicated positive tests for cocaine and methamphetamine. Then came the shocker.

"This was from a 2-year-old child," Rush disclosed. The crowd gasped.

Listeners stood along the walls, sat in the aisles and overflowed into adjoining rooms as Rush and Angela Smith Grossman, acting director of the Tippecanoe County Department of Child Services, told of the devastating impact methamphetamine is having on children in the community.

"These children need a tremendous amount of community support," Rush said.

Kristi Hull, a youth, adult and family services major at Purdue University and intern with Lafayette Transitional Housing, hopes to provide some of that support after graduation.

She was surprised to learn Wednesday that a decline in the discovery of meth labs locally last year paralleled an increase in the importation of cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico.

"It's not just a problem in Lafayette, Hull said. "It's a problem all over... Lafayette is very good at admitting that they do have a problem and they want to take care of it."

Grossman said 111 of 245 children taken from their homes because of abuse and neglect last year in the county were involved in drug- or alcohol-related cases. Thirty-four of the child removals involved meth.

These children, already traumatized by weeks or months of neglect from their drug-abusing parents, have to then leave all of their clothing and belongings behind for fear of contamination with the toxic byproducts of the cooking process. Protocols also require the children to undergo health exams and drug screenings.

"There is a huge expense in dollars that this problem has perpetuated," Grossman said. "Parents must go through months of expensive treatment to regain custody of their children."

In 2005, 145 children were involved with the Department of Child Services because of substance abuse issues. Half of them were less than 4 years old.