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"As disgusting and filthy as most meth labs are, you won't find rats or mice in them.

Rats and mice are instinctively too smart to be anywhere near such a toxic environment"

A First Responder - Iowa  

"In terms of damage to children and to our society, meth is now the most dangerous drug in America."   - Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - Newsweek Magazine

Note

This section discusses children living in meth labs or meth using environments.  Inherently, certain generalizations must be used about a child's treatment and living conditions in that type of environment.  However, we personally know meth addicts - both active addicts and those in recovery.  And we do not want to infer that every parent who uses meth, acts or behaves in the way they are described below, or treat their children this way.  But clearly, many do, because as we learn, once you're addicted to any substance, the substance gets the top priority.

Introduction

The restriction of precursor chemicals to make methamphetamine, plus increased savvy on the part of law enforcement initially resulted in a huge drop in small domestic meth labs virtually everywhere these restrictions were applied.  But as most law enforcement officers will admit, the "other guys" are usually one step ahead.  And such is the case with the small meth lab.  As of May 2008, they're on the rise again in most parts of the U.S. and now Canada is beginning to see an upsurge as well.  This is caused in part because of new and easier methods of obtaining precursor chemicals, and new and faster methods of production, such as the "one-pot" method of making meth.

So don't let anybody tell you that small meth labs are down, and that the issue is over.  Just check our section "Dangers Of A Meth Lab," and we'll provide recent proof of that.

Children Living In Or Near A Meth Lab

Obviously, the worst-case scenario for the children affected by methamphetamine are those children that were, or are actually living in the same environment where the drug is manufactured or "cooked."  You can pretty much assume that by the time a parent or caregiver has become so delusional as to become a meth cook, and allow a child to live in a meth lab environment, whatever level of parenting skills they may have had in the past are gone.

Like all forms of addiction, ultimately the "substance or behavior of choice" becomes the top priority in your "life" and everything else is secondary.  And with addiction to methamphetamine, that usually (not always) includes the addict's children.  In areas where meth labs have really proliferated, the numbers of children affected were almost hard to believe.

For example, at one time in San Joaquin County, California, 80% of newly admitted kids into Child Protective Services had methamphetamine in their systems.  It's not like that everywhere, but should it be like that anywhere?

So we think this section is particularly important because a) we're talking about children, and b) this is an aspect of the meth problem that researchers are just beginning to get a handle on and the impact on society will be felt for decades to come.

The Innocent Victims Of Methamphetamine

Children are the innocent and tragic victims of methamphetamine in two ways.  First from the effects of living in labs or "areas of use," and second from the total neglect and/or abuse they can potentially experience from their parents or other adults who frequent the environment.  Additionally, most kids that come from meth "lab" or "den" environments have received little if any dental or medical care while growing up, and that's obviously something that society will pay dearly for later down the road.

Excluding the picture above (within which the child's face has been intentionally blurred) there's no useful purpose in showing pictures of these kids - clearly they've suffered enough and we have no intention of adding to the indignities they've already endured by posting their pictures on our site.  You can only imagine the terror in that little child's mind while being held by what look like alien creatures.

And really, it doesn't take much imagination to guess what kids usually look like after living in a meth lab, or just living with parents or "caregivers," who by virtue of their meth addiction, have usually relegated their children and everything else to a secondary priority behind meth.

"Home Sweet Home"

Considering law enforcement officers wear respirators and "hazardous-material" suits when entering a meth lab, obviously the kids living in these environments are at extreme risk physically. Babies and younger children have smaller and faster metabolisms, less mature organs, and inherently weaker immune systems.  This makes them exceedingly vulnerable to the toxicity found in meth labs.

Many of these children can rattle off for you exactly how to make meth, as they have often been recruited by their parents to stir solutions and other tasks needed for meth production.  They are old beyond their years because they have seen, heard and and done things that children are not supposed to see, hear, or do. 

Babies have been found sleeping in unventilated closets within meth labs, in some cases the same closet where some of the meth-making chemicals are stored.  Meth labs and meth "dens" have been raided where children were kept in cages, where containers of lethal red iodine were on the same shelf as red Kool-Aid, and bedrooms filled with so many red phosphorus stains leeched into the walls that the kids had to sleep in the bathroom.

And this vividly illustrates how completely out of touch with reality meth addicts become after persistent use.  They just can't put two and two together because meth rules their mind and their entire concept of action and consequence is shot.  Meth use has its physical consequences, but the insidious and corrosive effects on the personality are in a category of their own.

Yet as bad as many of them might appear on the outside, it's inside the children of meth where the most abuse has probably occurred of both a psychological and neurological nature.  It's thought for many of these kids, this abuse might manifest itself in things like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder among many other problems.

Next we take a look at a profile of the children of meth, and some of the psychological ramifications of living in a meth lab, or meth-using environment.  We also have an excellent video for you to watch on meth and drug-endangered children.

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