Meth hits home (Tennessee)

by Jessica Stith
of The Daily Times Staff

Innocent children are being burned and blistered by chemicals in the carpets they crawl on, the clothes they wear and the toys they play with.

They are being taken away from their families to get them out of the methamphetamine labs being run in their homes.

Meth is destroying families. It is straining the resources of Tennessee's medical and dental organizations.

According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, trauma patients who use meth are likely to incur medical costs $4,000 higher than the general population.

Dr. David Lynn, emergency room physician at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, said the most important point he can emphasize is that meth usage ``is more common than we realize.''

Lynn said most patients who use meth -- people likely to generate much higher medical bills -- generally do not have medical insurance.

Lynn said meth users incur greater hospital costs because the drug debilitates the body.

``There is muscle loss; people are frail and in pretty poor shape when they come in to us,'' Lynn said. ``It is more difficult for them to recover, and it takes more time for them to recover.''

Another big concern of Lynn's: the children. When hospital personnel believe a child has been exposed to a meth lab or is neglected by parents who use meth, there are specific steps the hospital staff must take to determine the health status of the child.

Children living in a home where meth is produced are exposed to a multitude of hazardous chemicals. Lynn said those children usually have an odor on their clothing from the chemicals and abnormally high blood pressure, usually resulting from the pseudoephedrine used to make meth.

Medical personnel look for respiratory problems in these children and perform blood tests to make sure the liver and kidneys are healthy because the chemicals affect those areas. Lynn said another common find on children exposed to home meth labs are blisters from the chemicals.

In a survey polling 500 sheriff's offices in 45 states, the National Association of Counties found that 40 percent of child welfare officials surveyed reported methamphetamine has led to an increase in the number of children removed from their homes.

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