Here's an article you're not likely to run across. I found it via a Nexis search; it ran in Managed Care Law News, and it discusses work in Kentucky to train medical, social service and law enforcement workers to recognize and help kids exposed to meth.
How bad is it for kids exposed to meth? Well:
Kentucky State Police statistics through December 6, 2004, show that 66 children have been found living in 515 methamphetamine labs that were discovered in the state in 2004. Steve Davis, the director of the Kentucky Division of Adult and Child Health Improvement, estimated that at least 30,000 children in the state have been exposed to methamphetamine labs, and state police Sgt. Phil Crumpton said the issue of meth exposure isn't limited to children of users and producers of meth.
"All of us are in danger," Crumpton said. "You don't know if a meth lab is going on in somebody's house that you're sending your kids to. You don't know if the house next door has a meth lab in it that's going to explode, with your house being involved. It's an issue for everybody."
Davis said that "the substance abuse issues in our state, the substance abuse issues in this country, are ripping the heart out of the fundamentals of what this country was built on. I've personally not only seen patients' lives destroyed, I've seen families destroyed, and I know for a fact that in some of our communities across Kentucky, the heart and soul of our communities are getting ripped out as a result of substance abuse."
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