Colorado’s Drug-Endangered Children
from School Health Reporter, Spring 2004
Catherine Worster, Communications Director, Kempe Children's Foundation
During surveillance of a home where a suspected methamphetamine lab was being operated, Lt. Lori Moriarity, a member of the North Metro Drug Task Force, and her team waited to enter the home. A young boy, about 5 years old, stepped out of the house every few minutes, looked up and down the street and then stepped back into the house. He was dressed in a skeleton costume.
After the raid, Moriarity spoke with the boy about why he kept peering up and down the street. He explained that his school’s Halloween party was that day. He couldn’t wake his mother up to take him to school, so he thought if he could catch the bus, he could get to his party. He had no shoes, socks or underwear on, but be assured, if he had caught the bus, he would have gone to school that day.
Then Moriarity asked the boy if he could count to 10. He responded that he could count to 100, but faltered after seven. But he proudly declared that he could draw. Moriarity quickly located some paper and the boy proceeded to write his name – Romeo – clearly. He said he knew why everyone was there. He said his mother was making oil, but he knew she was making drugs. Romeo said he could draw what his mother was doing. He then proceeded to draw the entire process of manufacturing methamphetamine. He showed the heating element, the tubing, the bag to “catch” the gas – it was all there. Is this the knowledge we want our children to grow up with? Or should we act on their behalf to care not only for their immediate medical needs, but also their futures?
Imagine a home equipped with a crude laboratory. In this lab, glassware and tubing are interconnected to mix household chemicals with pseudophedrine in such a way to create a very dangerous drug, methamphetamine. When mixed, these chemicals give off toxic vapors and are extremely volatile and explosive. The person making methamphetamine is often under the influence of the drug while preparing it, impairing his or her ability to respond to the inherent dangers of its preparation. Now, place a child in the middle of this environment, playing in these chemicals while attempting to explore his or her environment.
Sound like a horror movie? It is not. It is the reality of Romeo’s home and the methamphetamine epidemic.
Methamphetamine labs impact thousands of children in Colorado . Studies show that at least 30 percent of children found in homes where methamphetamine is manufactured test positive for the drug – most absorb it, but others may have been given the drug. Additionally, children found in these homes are frequently exposed to toxic chemicals, weapons, pornography, predators, neglectful caretakers and sexual abuse.
Methamphetamine is eating away at the social fabric in Colorado . Clandestine methamphetamine laboratories have been a growing problem throughout Colorado and across the United States . In Colorado alone, the number of methamphetamine lab busts reported by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has increased dramatically over the past three years: 150 in 1999, 264 in 2000 and more than 400 in 2001. The illicit drug increasingly cuts across economic, age, race, gender and geographic boundaries.
Labs are popping up next door – in expensive hotels, well-to-do suburbs and family apartment complexes in nearly crime-free neighborhoods
Katherine Wells, MD, became involved in this work 18 months ago after she received a phone call from Moriarity. Moriarity had seen the dramatic rise in the number of methamphetamine lab busts under her command. But Moriarity quickly learned that an even bigger problem existed.
During a methamphetamine lab bust in April 2002, Moriarity’s team removed an infant. The infant was crawling on the carpets saturated in toxic chemicals. It was then that Moriarity realized that the real victims of methamphetamine labs were the innocent children living in the environment.
Moriarity immediately called the Kempe Children’s Center. She was connected with the Kempe Child Protection Team, which operates out of The Children’s Hospital. Dr. Wells, a pediatrician at Kempe, began working with Moriarity and quickly realized they needed to take immediate and drastic action to help these children.
Based on the Drug Endangered Children Program developed in Butte County , Calif. , Moriarity and Wells initiated, for the first time in Colorado , a group of professionals willing to assess and establish the best methods of collectively meeting the needs of these children.
As a pediatrician, Wells is helping the medical profession recognize exposure, develop appropriate treatment and prevent children from returning to unsafe environments.
The goal is to raise awareness about the multiple dangers methamphetamine labs pose to children – the vulnerable and voiceless victims. The team also is working to collect valid and meaningful data to assist in caring for these children. Wells is spearheading a national effort to compile data and to track these children for potential long-term effects.
During Colorado ’s last legislative session, four bills were introduced to protect children from meth abuse. Wells, Moriarity, Theresa Spahn, director of the Office of the Child’s Representative, and Jim Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) Clandestine Lab Coordinator, worked on these four bills, which were fundamental to protecting Colorado ’s children from the threats of this dangerous trend.
The first bill, HB1004, sponsored by Rep. Pam Rhodes and Sen. Peggy Reeves, allowed for individuals who manufacture drugs in the presence of or in close proximity to children to be charged with a Class 3 felony. Previously, unless the child had sustained serious bodily injury, the most the manufacturer could be charged with related to the child was a misdemeanor. This was despite a law the previous year making it a Class 3 felony to manufacture within a 1,000 feet of a school.
The second bill, HB1069, sponsored by Rep. Cheri Jahn and Sen. Ken Arnold, included manufacturing methamphetamine as child abuse in the Children’s Code.
Therefore, any mandated reporter is now obligated to report the presence of children living in a home found to contain a methamphetamine lab, and ultimately allows Social Services to become involved in any cases where children are in the presence of or in close proximity to the manufacturing of drugs. The bill created a consistent response across all counties.
The third bill, HB1317, sponsored by Rep. Tim Friz and Sen. Jim Dyer, made it unlawful for a corporation to market, sell or distribute a regulated chemical if an agent of the corporation negligently sells the regulated chemical to a person or entity who uses or intends to use it to manufacture a controlled substance. This prevention effort assumes that if the chemicals needed to manufacture drugs are not available, children will not be at risk.
Unfortunately, one of the bills did not pass this year. HB1115, sponsored by Rep. Lois Tochtrop and Sen. Mark Hillman, would have directed the state board of health to develop rules setting standards for the cleaning of illegal drug laboratories and defined the areas likely to be contaminated by such laboratories.
Legislative efforts have helped create stiffer penalties for individuals who put children at risk, but caregivers must be held accountable through sentence enhancers and revision of state statutes regarding child-abuse charges. Special attention must be paid to treatment programs to break the cycle of substance abuse and the damage it can do to a family.
Though HB1115 was not passed, state standards for toxic cleanup of homes must be developed. It only makes sense to permanently remove any further risk to children and families who may subsequently and unknowingly move into these toxic homes. There is an obligation to ensure children are not exposed to dangerous environments.
In addition to the work at the state legislature, the team has the opportunity to create an integrated, standardized and comprehensive program that will effectively address the needs of drug-endangered children. The culmination of these efforts could serve as a benchmark program for other states.
Several goals have been delineated to better protect these vulnerable children. For example, it is vital to create statewide public and professional awareness. For the past 18 months, training has been offered around the state to social workers, nurses, doctors, judges, law enforcement professionals, firefighters, CASAs (court-appointed special advocates), guardians ad litem and the general public. Anyone involved in identifying or advocating for children at risk must have a thorough understanding of the manufacture of methamphetamine and the toxic environment associated with meth labs. This training will raise the understanding of this emerging problem to anyone who will be on the front lines of this battle.
Individuals enrolled in the training will learn the proper way for removing the children from toxic environments and will provide immediate, appropriate and consistent responses and services. Once the children are removed from the home, their systemic needs must be met, including health assessment and treatment, placement, court process and safe return home or other timely placement that will prevent them from returning to risk situations.
The purpose of this multidisciplinary approach is to identify, assess and respond to the needs of these children, develop and recommend best practice standards, and create plans of implementation. Children deserve to be in safe homes. Everyone must work to protect children like Romeo from these dangerous and abusive environments.
Learn more about Colorado ’s Drug Endangered Children program or training opportunities.
