Toxic environment: While grown-ups cook meth, children are put in danger By

By Caitlin Rother

STAFF WRITER

The big methamphetamine labs may have been forced out of San Diego County, but the "Mom and Pop" operations that have popped up in their place have heightened the danger to children.

Unlike the super labs, which were typically set up in rural areas, these small operations can be assembled anywhere a hot plate can be plugged in: motel rooms, garages, apartments, and mobile homes – places where children may be present.

If the liquid mix is stored in a refrigerator before it's cooked, the chemicals can seep into wrapped food. The cooking process not only produces toxic vapors that spread the drug over countertops, furniture and carpets, it also creates the potential for an explosion.

Small-time producers are often high on meth, so they're "not using any precautions. They're using volatile chemicals and they couldn't care less about their safety (or) the safety of others around them," said Dave King, a special agent supervisor for the state Bureau of Narcotics.

Because children can ingest the drug merely by touching a surface and putting their hands in their mouths, local law enforcement officials say more children have become unwitting users in recent years than when super labs were still operating here. The larger labs have since been forced into nearby counties, or into Mexico.

A batch of meth can be cooked in just six hours using household products such as iodine, nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide, drain cleaner and rubbing alcohol. A key ingredient, pseudoephedrine, is culled from popular over-the-counter cold medicines, including Sudafed.

At least two states now require that nonprescription drugs containing pseudoephedrine be sold only by pharmacists. In California, consumers can't buy cold medicines that contain more than a combined total of 9 grams of the drug on a single trip to the pharmacy.

The Senate recently passed a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would require similar restrictions nationwide.

It's impossible to measure how many small meth labs exist today, but law enforcement has been cracking down on the nation's growing meth problem. In one week in August, police and federal agents in more than 200 cities made 427 arrests and seized 56 labs, large and small.

Historically, it has been difficult to measure how many children – locally or nationally – have been exposed to meth. No comprehensive national statistics exist, and San Diego County only recently began to count the total number of children removed from drug-related crime scenes throughout the county.

Dr. Wendy Wright, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital, points to another hole in the data: There are no formal studies or comprehensive statistics measuring the long-term effects of meth on children.

Anecdotally, experts say children exposed to meth develop learning delays, poor social skills, dental problems and other health issues. Some don't know how to read or spell their names even when they're 9 or 10.

"These kids are at risk and more study needs to be done," said Wright, who also works at the Polinsky Children's Center, the county's shelter for neglected, abandoned and abused children.

Children who live in homes where meth is being cooked or smoked are not only in immediate physical danger, but they may also develop emotional and physiological problems after years of exposure.

The children commonly see domestic violence, sexual abuse, and visitors coming and going at odd hours. Their parents often leave guns and meth stashes out in the open. Some parents take their children along on drug buys and end up in high-speed chases by police. Others hide wads of cash in their homes – money has even been found under a baby's mattress.

In the worst cases, caregivers or parents on meth have killed children.

In other cases, authorities arrived in time to prevent such tragedies:

In August 2004, 10 children, ages 8 months to 10 years, were sent to Polinsky after 42 adults were arrested in a sting at a Rancho Peñasquitos apartment complex.

In May 2004, a child was taken to Polinsky after four people were arrested in military housing in Oak Park. A neighbor smelled fumes coming from a garage after a man who lived in that unit asked her to watch his 3-year-old "while he was cooking." Chemicals used to make meth were found next to the child's toys.

In February 2003, police found two children, ages 2 and 4, locked naked in an unheated, roach-infected hut in Barrio Logan. They had been locked up by their meth-using parents for at least a year and could speak only gibberish. They had no toilet and their mattress was riddled with dog and cat feces.

San Diego was among the first counties in California to establish the Drug Endangered Children program, which pairs social workers with law enforcement officers when children are found at meth-related crime scenes. Similar programs, commonly referred to as DEC, or "deck," have since popped up across the county.

Deputy District Attorney Bill Wood, who is chairman of the California DEC Alliance, applied for the original DEC grant in 1997 after successfully prosecuting a meth-addicted mother and her boyfriend for the fatal beating of her 8-month-old son, Zachary Kete. The baby's name was made public after readers of The San Diego Union-Tribune decided he needed a headstone for his unmarked grave.

The county's three-year pilot ran in the North County from 1998 to 2001 before funding ran out. Wood and others fought unsuccessfully for years to obtain more money. Finally, they persuaded county officials to use existing resources and cobble together a program that was phased in countywide in August 2004.

During their regular work day, the county's four DEC social workers join law enforcement officers at meth crime scenes. After hours, DEC workers or their supervisors consult with officers by phone.

Lucy Millan, the DEC worker in the South Bay, responded to 90 drug calls in the 12-month period ending in March.

During one call last year she visited a one-bedroom apartment where DEA agents had seen a stream of chemical fumes being blown out the bedroom window by a fan. Inside, they found a mother, her boyfriend and her toddler sleeping on the living room floor. The fumes were streaming from a five-gallon batch of freshly cooked meth drying in the bedroom.

Millan made her way through a chemical haze that turned white as it caught the sunlight streaming through the curtains. Her nose burned and her eyes watered. She saw a gun on a shelf and a safe full of cash. The floor was covered with half-eaten cheeseburgers, fast-food wrappers and other clutter. Pornographic videos and magazines were stacked next to the television.

The mother told authorities that she had closed the bedroom door to keep the fumes away from the baby.

"We didn't want to expose our kid to this, so that's why we're sleeping in the living room," she said.

The woman didn't understand that doors don't stop the spread of toxic meth vapors.

After less than 20 minutes in the apartment, Millan felt lightheaded and a little dizzy. Her head started to ache.

The toddler didn't test positive for meth at Polinsky, but experts say a negative test doesn't mean a child hasn't been exposed to the chemicals.

Just being in a room where someone is smoking meth can harm children. A 9-month-old baby taken in by police during a domestic violence call at a National City motel, for example, tested positive for meth.

Sometimes, Millan says, children confide in her while she's driving them to Polinsky, where they are drug tested as part of a medical evaluation. If they show symptoms such as a rapid heart beat, high blood pressure, an elevated temperature or extreme irritability, a nurse will call a doctor or send them to Children's Hospital, where treatment may include rehydration or sedation.

"We always try to tell these kids that none of this is their fault," said Lori Newhart, Millan's supervisor at county Child Welfare Services. "That's really important for children to know."

Children removed from meth homes come from all parts of the socioeconomic spectrum.

Millan recalled visiting an upscale home after an anonymous caller to the meth hot line said children were present while meth and marijuana were being used and sold.

The house had half a dozen bathrooms and a sophisticated outdoor surveillance system. Glass meth pipes and meth residue were found in the master bathroom, which the children, ages 2 and 4, shared with their mother. Plastic-wrapped bundles of marijuana were stored in Nordstrom shopping bags, and a ceramic pot sitting next to the bed was full of white powder.

"The house wasn't a filthy pig sty," Millan recalled. The "kids were dressed nice."

Millan took the children to Polinsky, where the younger tested positive for meth.

Caitlin Rother: (619) 542-4567; caitlin.rother@uniontrib.com