Need for foster care escalating due to meth labs

Methamphetamine has become the No. 1 illegal drug problem in the nation, according to law enforcement officials, and now agencies that care for children from broken homes have seen a dramatic rise in the number of cases related to the widely used narcotic.

In Oklahoma, the number of foster children in the state is up 16 percent from a year ago. In Kentucky, the numbers are up 12 percent, which means 753 more children in the system, according to a New York Times feature on the subject July 11.

Officials in Oregon reported an increase of 569 and said the caseload would be half that number if the methamphetamine problem was conquered. Tennessee saw 300 more children enter foster care in 2004 than 2003, largely because of meth.

Alabama officials reported that foster-care cases documented to be a result of drug abuse from month to month has nearly doubled between 2004 and 2005.

Destructive nature

The problem is being compared to the crack baby epidemic of the 1990s, though officials say methamphetamine’s potent and destructive nature coupled with the fact that it can be manufactured in a home around kids sets it apart from other drugs.

“It has become harder to attract and keep foster parents because the children of methamphetamine arrive with so many behavioral problems; they may not get into their beds at night because they are so used to sleeping on the floor, and they may resist toilet training because they are used to wearing dirty diapers,” The Times reported.

Often parents will cook up the drug — which can be made from basic ingredients like cold medicine or fertilizer — in the kitchen while their children play nearby. Then they’ll smoke or inject the drug and, eventually, pass out for extended times following a rush, never taking care of the children. The Drug Enforcement Administration reported that over the past five years, 15,000 children were found at meth labs, The Times said.

“People always ask, what can they do about meth? The important thing you can do is become a foster parent because we’re just seeing so many kids being taken from these homes,” North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem told The Times.