Kids Can Be Incidental Victims of Meth Labs

Dec. 12, 2004 — -- It's becoming a more common sight in many towns -- police raiding homes where drug addicts are manufacturing methamphetamine, right where they and their children live.

"These children are, in essence, living in gas chambers that could explode at any time," says Betsy Dunn, a social worker with the Tennessee Department of Children's Services.

Making methamphetamine is easy. All it takes is a combination of decongestant tablets and common household chemicals. Those ingredients are then cooked in a process that creates poisonous fumes and toxic residue.

"We've seen children drink muratic acid, which is hydrochloric acid," says Dr. Sullivan Smith. "We have seen burns from direct exposure."

Smith runs the emergency room at Tennessee's Cookeville Regional Hospital. He says children removed from homemade meth labs are immediately scrubbed of all chemicals, but the signs of exposure can linger. Many suffer from open sores, respiratory ailments or worse.

"You see children that are small for their age; you see behavioral disorders," he says. "The scariest part of this is we don't know the long-term effects."

The methamphetamine epidemic has been spreading across the country, mainly in rural areas, for the last decade. In 1995, there were 818 meth labs seizures across the country. Last year, that number climbed to 10,293, due in part to aggressive policing and better reporting from the states.

Tennessee is ground zero in the war on meth. The state expects to rescue 750 children from homemade meth labs. Dunn says meth is unlike any other drug she has encountered.

"It totally consumes a person," she says. "People lose all concern for their children, and they simply turn their backs and oftentimes throw them away."

‘I Had No Feelings’

Charlotte Sanders is a former meth addict who lost custody of her daughters after a raid three years ago. Amber and Ashley were 3 and 5 years old when their parents got hooked on the drug. The parents soon were cooking meth in the home.

"I was neglecting them really bad," says Charlotte. "My children would make their own breakfast and lunch and even wash their own clothes."

Both girls remember parents who simply weren't around.

"Amber cried a lot because she wanted to be with my mom," recalls Ashley. "I saw my friends and their parents were spending time with them, and my parents wouldn't spend any time with me."

As for Charlotte, the drug took away her conscience.

"I love my kids with all my heart," she says. "But I had no feelings."

Ashley initially tested positive for meth following the raid, but both girls are now healthy. Their mother, however, still suffers from seizures brought on by years of methamphetamine abuse. The girls have recently been reunited with their mom.

‘It Destroys the Entire Family’

The Sanders family is a rare success story. Many parents never regain custody of their children because they can't beat their addiction. An estimated 90 percent of meth addicts relapse.

"It destroys the entire family," says J.R. Scott, a Putnam County, Tenn., narcotics officer who has raided dozens of meth labs. "I call it the drug of no return."

Tennessee hopes to launch a pilot program that will give addicted parents a fighting chance. The proposed plan gives addicts a full year of inpatient drug therapy.

"Long-term treatment is key," says Smith, who is helping design the program. "We will never arrest our way out of the methamphetamine problem in this country. Never."

Charlotte Sanders agrees. She says long-term treatment wasn't available to her when she was arrested. A born-again Christian, Charlotte credits her faith for keeping her clean. She is starting a jailhouse ministry where she can work with meth addicts.

"I heard people say that once you're on meth, you can't get off of meth," she says. "Well, that's wrong. I have done it. I've done it for my kids. I've done it for myself. I've done it for God."