| INFORMATION ♦ EDUCATION ♦ ENFORCEMENT |
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THE EDUCATOR - Spring 2002 Drug-Endangered Children By Mitchel J. Brown and Sue Webber-Brown The Problem Every day in this country, you can see evidence of chil dren being abandoned and forgotten as victims of the drug epidemic, particularly methamphetamine. With metham phetamine come the additional dangers associated with drug manufacturing. The laboratories are toxic time bombs that not only contaminate our land and water, but our children. Children from a drug user/dealer’s home face many perils, but there are additional hazards faced by the child with a methamphetamine laboratory in or near their home. The hazards faced by these children include:
The children’s only hope is that law enforcement takes the first step by recognizing them as victims of crime that requires immediate intervention to rescue them. By forming a multi-agency team, Drug Endangered Children (DEC) Program, you will ensure that you’re part of a rescue effort which will save thousands of children. California’s Experience In California, the proliferation of clandestine meth amphetamine laboratories did not emerge until 1986. Between January 1986 and December 2000, approximately 10,000 clandestine drug laboratories (mostly methamphetamine) were discovered by California law enforcement agencies. Drug law enforcement officers in California have acted in addressing the manpower, training, and economic requirements of combating the problem of detecting, seizing, and prosecuting methamphetamine manufacturing cases. However, drug law enforcement officers, in most instances, failed to recognize additional victims in the drug wars—the children and the environment, who have become recipients of contamination from clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. All too often when drug enforcement officers incarcerate the parents of minor children for the manufacturing of methamphetamine, the children are dealt with in the most expedient manner. Generally, the children are left with a relative or neighbor who can respond the quickest to relieve the law enforcement officers of their child care (babysitting) duties. However, this expedient manner fails to address the needs of the children. Law enforcement must act now to adequately protect our most cherished resources - our children and the environment they will inherit. Clandestine methamphetamine laboratory sites and the hazardous chemicals associated with them continue to be a rapidly growing problem throughout the United States. They threaten the health of our children by poisoning their bodies with toxic substances. These same toxic substances contaminate our environment by getting into the air, ground, and water supply. The law enforcement community and public health officials are ill-prepared to address the environmental issues of hazards and/or toxic wastes associated with clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. Methamphetamine laboratory sites remain as toxic time bombs long after the laboratory equipment and raw chemicals are removed. If someone wanted to clean up the sites to allow for human inhabitants, no governmental standards exist for remediation. That is inexcusable. In September, 1995, an Agent with the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement concluded a two-year investigative report on “Child Endangerment and the Environmental Health Hazards Caused by Methamphetamine Laboratories” which he used for his Master’s thesis. His study examined Butte County’s DEC program. His findings were that there was adequate evidence, and case law, which addresses the extreme hazardous nature of a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory and the chemicals associated with the manufacturing process. Further, after the removal/dismantling of a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory, the site upon which it stood is an extreme health risk. Persons who expose their children to such a danger should be arrested and prosecuted for felony child endangerment because such actions are “likely to produce great bodily harm.” Currently, only 18 percent of children located at clan destine methamphetamine sites are detained by law enforcement and/or acted upon by child protective services. The study also found that when law enforcement had an aggressive pro gram of removing the child from a home that had a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory associated with it, coupled with medical testing, 35 percent of the children tested positive for methamphetamine. Based on additional preliminary results from Butte County, they found that 10 percent of children re moved from a user/seller house, tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine. Additionally, the study found that there was a large amount of physical and sexual abuse that occurred in meth homes. The first step in determining the needs of children located at the clandestine meth amphetamine laboratory is for law enforcement officers to have an established protocol with child protective services and health officials. The exposure of children to a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory site poses such a health risk, that it is now recognized as a violation of child endangerment laws in California. It hadn’t been so in years past. The Victims The methamphetamine epidemic has claimed countless children as its victims. One has to only view television or newspaper headlines to see its effects.
California’s Approach to a Solution In 1991, an Investigator with the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, was as signed to a multi-agency narcotics task force sponsored by the California Department of Justice. Over the course of the next few years, the Investigator noticed that most law enforcement officers would simply avoid assessing the needs of the child by allowing the child to stay with a friend, neighbor, or relative. Many times this is at the request of the parent, but it certainly has the endorsement of the law enforcement officer. Out of sight, out of mind, on with the business of narcotic enforcement. Not a very glamorous picture, but it was a reality. Even more discouraging was the fact that child protective services workers were encouraging law enforcement officers to find placement for the children. The Butte County DEC program established in 1993 is a multi-agency, cooperative effort to ensure the safety and well being of children endangered by drugs. Their goals are:
Remember, the parents as the primary caregivers, exposed their child to the toxic chemicals associated with methamphetamine manufacturing, as well as the parents’ lifestyle. Most manufacturers of drugs are also users and sellers of the drug themselves. Additionally, one if not both parents present at the laboratory site would be arrested and incarcerated in jail for an undetermined amount of time for manufacturing drugs. If that doesn’t appear reason enough to remove a child from the house hold, consider that the clandestine methamphetamine laboratory site doubled as the child’s home. A home which is a toxic waste site is uninhabitable for human beings. Not exactly an environment to leave a child in with friends, neighbors, or relatives. By the way, who do drug manufacturers, dealers, and users associate with? If the answer is: with others within the drug culture, then you have to have questions about the fitness of those friends, neighbors, and relatives. Where parents spread their criminal conduct into the lives of their children, the parents’ conduct must be addressed as would any other criminal conduct. Whether it is use, sales, or manufacturing, methamphetamine destroys children’s lives, future, and health. To improve their chances, intervention must occur. An evaluation of the situation should seem clear by now. The DEC program was established for the sole purpose of res cuing children from drug homes. In Butte County, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) exists between Children Services Division (CSD), the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force (BINTF), and the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. The purpose of the MOU is to provide a cooperative effort between the above-mentioned agencies to facilitate and coordinate a response to families involved in drug manufacturing, sales, and possession when children are involved. Based on the successes that Butte County encountered, they took their model program to the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning. After a year of meetings between professional disciplines, a pilot project was started by the Governor’s Office, which ultimately involved seven counties and the commitment of 3.1 million dollars over a three-year period. Success of Drug-Endangered Children (DEC) In Butte County, the successes of DEC have been measured in a variety of ways:
Availability of Training and Other Resources Today in California, with the assistance of the Governor’ Office of Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP), they formed an advisory committee on Child Endangerment in Clandestine Drug Labs. As a result of the efforts and recommendations of this committee, OCJP has funded a study that includes element from law enforcement, social services, and the District Attorney’s Office that addresses the needs of the victims associated with the manufacturing of methamphetamine. Additionally, a guidebook “Multi-Agency Partnerships: Linking Drugs with Child Endangerment” was developed. The guidebook pr vides critical drug enforcement protocol for those professionals working every day to protect the safety and well being our children. The guidebook addresses the following:
The guidebook also contains examples of memorandums of understanding, sample DEC reports, clandestine drug lab chemical checklist, testing for drug-exposed children protocol, safe work practices, and operational agreements. The guide book may be obtained by contacting the California Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning, 1130 K Street, Suite 300, Sacramento, California 95814, or by calling (916) 324-9100. Additionally, California has established a network of trainers who instruct on the Drug Endangered Children program. Conclusion Every discipline involved in identifying and helping children at risk should be involved in a DEC program. It’s the legal and moral thing to do. Please start your DEC program today. About the Authors Investigator Sue Webber-Brown, Butte County District Attorney’s Office, is an 18-year law enforcement veteran. For the past ten years, she has been assigned as a Detective to the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force. She is responsible for the investigation of major narcotic cases and child endangerment. She successfully developed and implemented Butte County’s Drug Endangered Children program, the first of its kind in the country. She has also co-authored a training guide on DEC, is a nationally recognized DEC expert and guest lecturer across the nation. She has been the recipient of numerous local, state and national awards for her work in the Drug-Endangered Children program.
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