TERRE HAUTE — The Indiana Legislature has seen at least seven proposals aimed at the state’s methamphetamine problem introduced during the current session.
But only one measure, deemed by some as the least effective — has made headway in the legislative process.
While most law enforcement officials and others who deal with the aftermath of methamphetamine use and production have been promoting the rescheduling of the prime meth ingredient — pseudoephedrine — in an effort to limit access to the drug, legislators have taken the route of tracking the sale of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, or PSE.
Senate Bill 503, which calls for tracking of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine sales, comes up for its second reading on the Senate floor next week. If it makes it through a third reading, the legislation passes to the House of Representatives for consideration there.
Left behind in committee has been House Bill 1030 and Senate Bill 103, both of which call for the rescheduling of PSE as a controlled substance, the same status that the decongestant held prior to 1976.
But while the tracking versus rescheduling debate plays out in the Legislature, the often unseen victims of meth use — children — continue to flood the state’s child protection system.
Last year was a record year for all categories of meth-related activities, according to data from the Indiana State Police Methamphetamine Suppression Section.
The 2010 report also show a dramatic rise in the number of children found in homes with meth labs. In 2010, ISP found 270 children residing in homes where the toxic ingredients were being brewed — a 117-percent increase from 2007, when 124 children were identified in meth homes. And the number has grown each year. In 2009, 185 children were removed from homes where meth was being cooked.
The Department of Child Services in Vigo County currently counts 8 children in care because of meth. Pam Connelly of DCS said the state’s child welfare agency does not keep statistics related to meth labs, but it is a growing problem associated with child neglect.
“Meth and alcohol problems are the biggest things we deal with,” Connelly said.
ISP First Sgt. Niki Crawford said children living in meth lab homes are usually subjected to not only a filthy and toxic environment, but are frequently damaged emotionally and physically by abuse.
“The neglect. The physical and sexual abuse. The children are the victims,” Crawford said.
Sex often becomes payment for drugs, and police have found many cases where child sex is exchanged for drugs. In other cases, parents who are incapacitated by drug use cannot protect the children in their home. Those children then are preyed upon by other adults, some of whom are in the home to use, sell or buy drugs.
For those children, the meth culture becomes a way of life that continues into adulthood.
Anyone who suspects that a child is endangered by meth use is encouraged to contact police or the local Child Protective Services agency.
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