After Drug Raids, Kids’ Care Is Next

When police investigators served a search warrant at a Santa Ana trailer park recently, they found more than a methamphetamine lab.

Behind a sheet being used for a curtain, under the dining room table, they stumbled upon four sleeping children.

Under a pilot program started in Orange County three years ago and now being copied throughout the country, the children--aged 5, 6, 9 and 11--were sent to social workers, not ignored by a system that critics say often pays more attention to criminals than victims.

“It’s a holistic view of law enforcement,” said Walter Allen, special agent of the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. “We are taking more of an interest in what happens to the children who live in this environment.”

Thanks to the Drug Endangered Children Team, children found in homes where drugs are present get medical tests. Officials said these tests often indicate that they have methamphetamine in their system from longtime exposure to the drug trade.

Investigators look at the crime scene on their knees to see how accessible drugs were to the children.

In the past, only children who showed clear signs of health troubles were given special care. Now, all children found in these conditions receive medical checks as well as emotional counseling, said Paul Haas, an investigator for the Anaheim Police Department.

Specially trained social workers now accompany police on drug raids so they can quickly tend to any children at the scene.

The pilot program is continuing to operate in Orange, Los Angeles and five other counties even though Gov. Gray Davis recently vetoed a bill to expand it using $10 million in state general funds. Orange County officials say they will shuffle their own resources in an effort to keep the project going.

More than 130 children in Orange County have been aided by the effort, including 31 so far this year. In 10 cases where both parents were not involved in drugs, children were returned to their families after extensive parenting classes.

Los Angeles County’s pilot program is limited to the San Gabriel Valley, but last year alone, officials provided special services to 86 children, and they expect the number to rise this year. In one case, investigators came across a 6-year-old Pasadena boy who had to help his father escape a fire caused by the family’s methamphetamine lab.

“This is a quantum leap for a cop. I’ve learned that we’re doing this for the kids. They are getting the short end of the stick. We are dealing with them trying to get them a better deal,” Haas said.

Methamphetamines, also known as speed or crank, can be eaten, snorted, smoked or injected. Those who take the drug feel potent and strong even though the body actually reacts slower. Though cocaine ruled the drug world in the 1980s, meth has become so popular, Haas said, that “street people say you have to special order cocaine. Coke is just not on the streets anymore. And every speck of meth comes from a lab.”

Last year, 111 meth labs were seized in Orange County. Already this year, 95 have been shut down, Allen said.

The labs are often no more than a kitchen counter or bathroom sink. If children are in the home, making the drug means mixing toxic chemicals in tight quarters, near where the children sleep, near where they play and near where they keep their toys. Hydrochloric acid, iodine and gasoline are often used to make the drug in a microwave or stove top. Fires often get out of control.

“These are not people who work for Dow Chemical,” Haas said of the meth-makers. “They are messy. They are anxious.”

The four children pulled from the Santa Ana trailer all tested positive for drugs. One told investigators he was often asked to bring chemicals from a toolshed, authorities said. Chemicals were regularly dumped in the backyard where they played. The family bathroom and kitchen were often filled with the stuff. The 9-year-old told police he was looking forward to going to Orangewood Children’s Home because he would get his own bed.

The children were subsequently moved to a foster family home.

The father was not only charged with manufacturing meth but also with endangering a child. The father plead guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison. Officials would not release his name or that of other parents to protect the identity of the children.

Investigators can’t forget some of the scenes they’ve witnessed:

* A baby whose crib toys were covered in meth and who tested positive for the drug.

* A child who ate chicken from the family refrigerator where every item tested positive for meth.

* A 7-year-old who showed police how to cook meth.

“We’re talking about [parents] who can’t even take care of themselves, and they’re manufacturing these dangerous drugs,” said John Allen Ramseyer, a Los Angeles deputy district attorney who prosecutes such cases.

Wendy Wright, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of San Diego who has worked with the program since its inception, said the effects of methamphetamine on children are unknown. But it’s clear that it can affect young brains.

Several local police agencies were surprised when Gov. Gray Davis rejected their request for $10 million in additional funding for the program.

Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Davis, said: “It was $10 million that did not go through the traditional budget process. While the governor thinks the program has merit, he believes it also should go through the budget process to compete against other programs with merit.”

In the meantime, officials in Orange County, as well as other counties including San Diego, are scrambling to put other funding in place.

“We are committed to this program,” said Jyothi Atluri, an Orange County Social Services Agency supervisor. “If we don’t get funding, we will still use our workers to help.”