What the media fails to report is the ramification meth and other controlled substances have on the children who live with addicts. Some have the ability to control parts of their lives, however, more often than not those caught in the grips of the drug fail to complete even the mundane tasks such as keeping the house clean. Children of those addicted to methamphetamine can be found in squalor and the most unsanitary of conditions as disease piles upon filth in their homes. These same children go unfed as the money for groceries is used for more drugs. Granted school programs provide breakfast and lunch, but dinner if it is had is fast food or Flaming Hot Cheetos.
Children of some addicts go un-bathed, uncombed, and their clothes are dirty, tattered and old. Granted, not all children of meth users are unfed and grime covered. Those who are not generally neglected still face the same very real possibilities those who are do. These youths are often witnesses to domestic violence. Many are physically abused themselves, or fall victim to sexual abuse (their homes are dens where other users gather and parents who abuse controlled substances are not always aware of the character or morality of those who come in and out of their homes).
The neglect that it is pervasive in meth riddled homes accounts for more than half of all Tulare County CPS detentions. In 2004 sexual abuse of 636 children was reported in the county, of these one hundred were substantiated. Physical abuse was reported that same year on over thirteen hundred kids ten percent of these were substantiated. Furthermore, in 2004 there were 350 reports of severe neglect, 10 of exploitation, 192 of emotional abuse, and 3,523 of general neglect.
In recent years the Federal government has focused the greater portion of the efforts of their efforts to combating a war on marijuana. While legislative initiatives have been taken to fight the spreading methamphetamine problem very little has actually been accomplished. In March of this year the President signed “The Combat Meth Act” to limit sales on medicines and products containing either ephedrine or pseudophedrine in the commercial market.
The law makes identification at the time of purchase requirement and limits purchases to 3.6 grams per day of items with either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine listed as an active ingredient. In an article printed in the North County Times on May 6, 2006, a report by doctors from the California Society of Addiction Medicine was cited as recommending the follow recourse for combating the growing meth problem in California:
- "Changing current laws to require immediate, confidential drug-screening in hospital emergency rooms , to find and provide treatment to methamphetamine users before they become criminals.
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Increasing funding for Proposition 36, passed in 2000. The proposition requires treatment, rather than jail time, for nonviolent drug offenders.
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Changing regulations that restrict methamphetamine users in drug treatment programs from getting psychiatric help to ease the psychoses and depression the drug creates.
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Aiming education campaigns warning of the long-term effects of methamphetamine use at women, adolescents and homosexual men , who, according to the report, are at high-risk of becoming methamphetamine abusers.
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Increasing the length of time that insurers offer treatment coverage for methamphetamine addicts.”
The passing of Proposition 36 in California offered non-violent drug offenders an alternative to prison sentences for first and second time offenses. However, on July 12th 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1137. According to Drug Policy
the new bill “radically rewrites Prop 36 to allow judges to incarcerate nonviolent drug offenders actively engaged in treatment, who relapse or otherwise violate probation. The website further charges, “The bill's passage - by politicians and lobbyist in back room dealings-not only guts the hugely successful and democratically approved Prop 36 treatment program, but also threatens the state's entire democratic initiative process.
Prop 36 was overwhelmingly supported by 61% of CA voters in 2000, and has since saved the state over $1.3 billion while helping more than 60,000 people with drug convictions receive treatment and lead productive lives.” Immediately following the passage of 1137 a motion was filed in Alameda County by Cliff Gardner (“the official ballot proponent of Prop 36), DPA and SCAM to have the bill struck down as “unconstitutional”.
If Senate Bill 1137 is upheld the repercussions upon the children of Tulare County as well as those of California has devastating possibilities. The reunification rate for children who have been removed from their parents care is already far below 50%. In the event that parents become incarcerated for extended periods of times due to 1137 the numbers of families that are given services and support to reunify will drop dramatically and the numbers of those kids who will spend their youth in foster care will increase.
Under present state law parents whose children are remanded into the custody of the state at the age of three or younger as well as their siblings will lose their parental rights if they cannot complete court ordered services within six months of the children's detention. For parents who are arrested on drug related charges jail time will impede the reunification process.
There are no easy solutions. Tulare County and rural communities like it throughout California as well as the nation will continue to be hindered by laws that fail to treat the growing problems of meth addiction and seek rather to punish than to help. Consequently more and more children who are truly the innocent victims of their parents addictions will ultimately pay the price as they will be left to be raised by relatives or strangers in foster homes. Those who are not on the front line of this battle turn a blind eye to a cause that desperately needs a voice.
Perhaps a growing activist outcry will rally attention to the plight of the addicted and their children and the government will see that like alcohol abuse or addiction to nicotine that those struggling with methamphetamine hapless and helpless awaiting the inevitable, emotional and economic devastation followed the silence of death.
