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May 2000
North County Doctors Learn to Spot Meth-Exposed Kids

Chronic coughing, skin rashes, and red, itchy eyes are all symptoms of a viral infection. But when is a child's cough caused by more than just a head cold? When that child is living in a meth-contaminated home.

With the number of children living at toxic meth sites on the rise, Strike Force officials are turning to the medical community for help. The Strike Force has begun training doctors and nurses to recognize symptoms of meth-exposure in young children.

"The deadly chemicals used to make meth are so toxic, kids suffer tremendously, often testing positive for narcotics," says Dr. Wendy K. Wright a pediatrician who cares for meth-exposed children at Children's Hospital and Health Center.

Dr. Wright and the County's Drug Endangered Children Team will present a one-hour course in meth-exposure to doctors and nurses at Tri-City Hospital, May 12, 2000 from 9:30 AM to 11 AM.

"We need our county's medical providers to be aware of these symptoms so we can adequately care for meth-exposed kids," said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Dianne Jacob, who initiated the Strike Force in 1996. "We want these children out of their dangerous drug homes so they can grow up safe and healthy," Chairwoman Jacob said.

"The parents of these kids are too ensnared in their addictions to care for their children," said Rhonda Oliver with San Diego County Children's Services and the DEC team. "These kids are malnourished and rarely get proper medical or dental care. Sometimes they're too embarrassed to go to school," Oliver said.

"The medical consequences are just part of the nightmare for these kids," said Deputy District Attorney Tom Manning with the DEC team. "These are homes where drugs are used, dealt, and even manufactured. We find guns and pornography and sometimes the places are even booby trapped for law enforcement," he said. "It's a deadly environment and it's no place for a kid," Manning said.

Last December, the Strike Force announced that more than half of the meth labs seized by the county had children living in them. Since 1998, the county's DEC team has removed 210 children from meth exposed sites. The children are cared for by Polinsky Children's Center and their parents must undergo intensive drug treatment if the family is to be reunited.