JACKSON - Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agent Jeff Killion gives a stark description of meth lab busts involving children.
"Lots of dirty diapers. Cockroaches. Food has been laying there out in the open for days on end. Horrendous odors," he said, adding that the children have "that far-off look in their eye and bugs crawling on them."
Killion said as Mississippi's meth problem escalates, there's been an increasing number of cases involving children who are present when the drug is being cooked down from toxic chemicals.
In 1998, the number was three, and grew to 64 by 2002, according to MBN statistics.
Killion was among dozens of law officers and social workers who are participating in a conference this week in Jackson that focuses on ways to better protect drug-endangered children.
Children are the forgotten victims of the war on drugs, said Sue Webber-Brown, an investigator in the Butte County, Calif., district attorney's office who started one of the nation's first drug-endangered child programs.
She showed the group a film depicting true cases of children who had been tortured or killed by meth users. Brown said keeping children from being harmed would require a team effort by social workers, law enforcement officers, the medical community and educators.
Brown also stressed sharing information among agencies.
Killion acknowledged narcotics agents in the past have been reluctant to divulge details of an ongoing investigation.
"It's the real world. They shoot real bullets," Killion said. "Somebody leaks the wrong information, we're going to die going through the door."
He said law enforcement agencies need to let social workers know when a bust is going to take place so they'll be on hand to remove any children who are present.
That means additional training for social workers, who may find themselves on the premises of a potentially explosive site. Substances used to make methamphetamine - ammonia, drain cleaner, battery acid and antifreeze - and the production process are volatile.
Wanda Gillom, deputy director of DHS' family and children division, said she's concerned about the growing number of meth cases involving children, thereby affecting social workers.
"We try to attend conferences that talk about this, but this is the biggest training that we can ever have," Gillom said of this week's conference. "I have a lot of our social workers here today."
Killion has begun training some of the state's more than 300 social workers. They're schooled on what to look for if a person is under the influence of meth or what precursors to the drug might be present.
The next big push will be for tougher laws, he said.
"If you sell dope around a child, there's no penalty enhancement right now," Killion said. "We have to work with the Legislature on all sorts of deals to try to strengthen our laws."
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