Harry and Marita Campbell don't need anybody to tell them how bad the methamphetamine problem is in Douglas County.

Their daughter has been addicted to the drug for years, forcing the Myrtle Creek couple to take care of their 3-year-old granddaughter, Danielle Rose.

"If you love your kids you're not going to let your grandkids go down the tubes too," Harry Campbell said. "It's a horrible experience to see that, the mental and physical deterioration of somebody you love, and just literally see their life in the toilet."

The Campbells' daughter did not return phone calls seeking comment, and Harry requested she not be identified.

Harry and Marita, both 63, have cared for Danielle since birth. They got custody of her just under a year ago, although the child's mother still sees her daughter on the weekends.

"I've raised my five kids, I don't want to be a father again," Harry said. "I love my granddaughter dearly, but that's not my point in life right now ... and there are so many people in Douglas County, grandparents raising their grandchildren, and it's because of meth."

Department of Human Services Child Protective Services Supervisor Becky Garino agrees.

"That's not a terribly uncommon thing," Garino said. "There are a lot of grandparents and relatives raising kids because of substance abuse."

Garino has seen a number of cases where methamphetamine use contributed to child neglect, physical or sexual abuse. Frequently, her department will become involved with a family because of the abuse, only to find out later how big a role drugs were playing in the equation.

The DHS Web site also identifies methamphetamine use as a risk factor in child maltreatment deaths.

The drug was implicated in half of the child abuse or neglect deaths occurring in 1999 where drug abuse was a factor.

If raised in a home where methamphetamine is manufactured, children also face the hazard of being poisoned by drugs left lying around, or getting injured in an explosion.

<b>COST TO KIDS, COMMUNITY</b>

Mothers who use meth while they're pregnant expose their unborn children to the drug, while often handing society the bill for the resulting medical costs.

"There's a huge cost to the community," Garino said, citing one prenatally exposed infant who spent six months at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland.

"It cost about $270,000 to treat that child, who eventually died," Garino said.

In another case, child welfare workers removed an infant from a woman who delivered her baby at home out of fear that her meth use would be discovered by hospital staff.

"She admitted that she'd been using methamphetamine and just didn't want to get caught," Garino said. "So she delivered the baby at home, which is a huge risk to the baby."

Babies who are born with meth in their systems often sleep and seem calm and placid after birth, which is actually an indication that they are "crashing," or coming down from the drug. The drug use increases the infants' chances of birth defects by six times, according to Dr. Michael Sherman, chief of neonatology at the University of California at Davis Medical School, who is studying the effects of meth on newborn babies.

Learning disabilities also may be a long-term effect for the children, he said.

Meth-addicted parents frequently wind up in circuit court, where their cases may be prosecuted by Douglas County Deputy District Attorney Jeff Sweet.

"There's crimes for having kids at places where controlled substances are present," Sweet said. "That's a misdemeanor, and if they're being criminally manufactured or delivered for profit, that's a felony."

The flood of current methamphetamine-related cases has stretched a court system already bursting at the seams, but the costs are borne in other areas of the community as well.

Douglas County Sheriff Chris Brown said, "It's the cause of a lot of domestic violence. It's responsible for a lot of theft, and burglaries, and robberies and assaults. It takes its toll on mental health and social services. Eighty percent of crime is drug-related. Meth is the scourge of Douglas County. Its cost easily goes into the millions."

The burden can be seen in lost productivity in the work force as well.

"It's a huge concern," said Stephanie Walker, human resources administrator for Roseburg Forest Products. "We have seen an increase in our positive meth results over the past year ... prior to October of last year I had only seen one meth (positive), and from that point forward, you know, we've had probably five or six ... four of those since August of this year."

Walker said RFP just instituted random departmental drug tests two years ago, so it's hard to gauge how much of a trend is developing based on the numbers alone.

"We drug test for five different reasons," Walker said. "We test pre-offer, we test new hires randomly for the first six months of employment, we test random department sweep testing, we test for cause ... and we also test post-accident."

If an employee tests positive for methamphetamine or any other substance prohibited by the company, he or she will normally get a second chance, during which they undergo more frequent random drug screens. If another positive test occurs within two years of the first, the employee is terminated.

"Unfortunately, we've found that if they do test positive for a drug such as (methamphetamine) ... their success rate ... for getting off of that is very slim," Walker said.

The Campbells hope their daughter can beat the odds so she can assume responsibility for Danni. For now, however, the toddler will remain with her grandparents.

"Danni would sure like her to be living with us," Harry Campbell said. "She's getting old enough now that she wants her mommy. In fact, she refers to me as 'Daddy,' and I have to say, 'No, I'm Grandpa,' because I don't want there to be any confusion."

Danni's father is also out of the picture, and her other grandparents live out of town.

Campbell said having custody of Danni has given him and Marita leverage with their daughter, providing her with some incentive for staying clean.

"(She) is coming around. She's going to be going to an AA meeting ... with my wife, and that's a good sign," Harry said.

In the meantime, Danni's 3-year-old voice will continue to ring through the halls of their home at the end of South Myrtle Road.

"At this age it's maybe a little bit more difficult to keep up, but she's such a great kid," Harry said. "I couldn't love her any more if she was my own daughter, so we're really not experiencing any hardships now, except we're tied down."



* You can reach reporter Christian Bringhurst at 957-4213 or by e-mail at cbringhurst@newsreview.info.