The innocents: Kids fall victim to parents' addictions(Utah)

Copyright 2004 Deseret Morning News
By Dennis Romboy and Lucinda Dillon Kinkead
Deseret Morning News

"For these are all our children. . . . We will all profit, or pay for whatever they become."
Dan Lund, for the Deseret Morning NewsA 14-month-old girl sits under a podium while her father reports to Judge Kay Lindsay during drug court at the 4th District Juvenile Court House in Provo. In the home of a meth user, children are a nuisance, forgotten.—James Baldwin, author


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Rebecca Peacock called her daughter's cell phone again and again early on a Sunday morning only to be directed to voice mail each time.
Her 23-month-old grandson had seemed fine when she picked him up to care for him the night before, but now something was wrong. The boy was restless and wouldn't sleep.
"He was going 100 miles a minute," she said last year. "He was very hyper, agitated and couldn't sit still. . . . His heart was just beating really fast."
Still trying to reach her daughter, Peacock took the boy to Primary Children's Medical Center. A test showed methamphetamine in his system.
Tanner Stone finally woke up about noon on the downside of a meth run. There were 15 to 20 messages on her cell phone, all from her mother. She called the hospital and found out her son had tested positive for meth.
Stone was incredulous. No way. How? "What did you do?" she demanded of her mother.
"I tried to blame her," Stone, now 20, said last month after a 3rd District Dependency Drug Court hearing.
It was Stone's own carelessness, though, that put her son in the hospital. A plastic straw she used to snort meth found its way into his sippy cup.



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"I am sorry for every tear you have shed. I'm sorry I'm a drug addict. I am sorry if I made you feel like drugs were more important than you. I am sorry I used drugs to cover and hide my pain from being away from you rather than staying sober and doing whatever I needed to do to get you back. I am sorry I let you down and wasn't always there when you needed me. I am sorry you have ever seen me high. I am sorry I ever yelled in your presence. I am sorry for the times I went to jail and you had to see me behind glass. I am sorry I missed your second Christmas. Most of all, I am sorry that I haven't been the mom that you truly deserve to have."
— A "victim letter," written by a woman in treatment for methamphetamine addiction

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