Stay Informed

Sign up for news & alerts

Already signed up?
Login here

take action
For every $1 states spend dollar sign on substance misuse and addiction, 94 cents go to shovel up the consequences instead of for treatment and prevention. TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS

What Can I Do?



Continuing Education
Free online courses for addiction counselors LEARN ONLINE

Get Help
Need alcohol or drug help for yourself or someone else? GET HELP

 
Iowa Meth Crackdown Not Improving Child Welfare
December 22, 2005

Share Share Email
Email
Print
Print
SubscribeSubscribe
Research Summary

Although Iowa has cracked down on methamphetamine labs, the percentage of child welfare cases involving parental meth use remains steady at 49 percent in the state's southwest region, according to a study by a social work administrator, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported on Dec. 19.

Carol Gutchewsky, a social worker in western Iowa, studied ongoing child welfare cases in the Iowa Department of Human Services' (DHS) Council Bluffs Service Delivery Area, were many social workers were actually reporting an increase in child abuse cases involving known meth use.

The official state figures are lower than Gutchewsky's, because the state includes only the manufacturing or possession of meth in the presence of a child or the presence of the drug in the child's system, while the Gutchewsky's study also counted parents who were arrested for meth use and had positive drug tests.

"When looked at strictly categorically, the (state) abuse findings can minimize the extent of drug involvement," wrote Gutchewsky in her study. "There's lots of drug activity hidden behind or within all of Iowa's categories of child abuse."

After six months of enforcement of a new law restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, the number of meth lab busts reduced by over 80 percent, said Dale Woolery, a spokesman for the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy.

"I think you have to conclude that the efforts by legislators last spring to make it more difficult to have homegrown shops... while beneficial, has not significantly slowed the supply of this drug," said Roger Munns, a spokesman for the DHS.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:
(Comments now appear first to last)

Your Turn! Post a public comment (guidelines):

Name:

Comment:
(limit 250
words)
Enter this word
(help):		 Change

GUIDELINES: 
To keep this feature useful for everyone, please:

  1. Keep it clean, courteous, brief, and on-topic. Comments are for discussion of the above article, not general rants or manifestos. Serial comments intended to circumvent the 250-word limit may be deleted.

  2. Do not post promotional web links, personal information or requests for assistance (get help).

  3. Proof your comments carefully, use good spelling and punctuation, and don't use ALL CAPS. Comments are published immediately and cannot be edited.

Deceptive, slanderous and commercial posts are prohibited. We reserve the right to remove comments. (Report a comment).

Have questions or feedback? Contact us.