Doctor explains how kids suffer from meth epidemic

REDDING, Calif. - The explosion of methamphetamine use in America is like a ''brush fire,'' an expert on methamphetamine-exposed children says.

Methamphetamine, also commonly known as speed or crank, is an inexpensive, highly addictive stimulant that ''hijacks the brain and reprograms it'' so the only pleasurable feeling you have is the feeling of high, says Dr. Rizwan Shah, who runs a clinic for drug-exposed children in Iowa.

California has more reports of meth labs than any state in the nation, Shah said.

When Shah's clinic at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines opened in 1989, most of her clients were born to cocaine users. Now 90 percent of them are meth cases.

It's cheaper than crack cocaine and it helps users lose weight, making it the drug of choice for poor white women, Shah said.

And when they get pregnant, their babies get addicted, too, she said.

Pregnant meth users are unlikely to get prenatal care and they don't eat properly, Shah said, adding that she knew of one woman who consumed nothing but methamphetamine and Gatorade for two consecutive weeks.

Many babies born to meth-addicted women can't tolerate stimuli such as human touch or regular light. They can have tremors and coordination problems, said Shah.

When they become school-aged, they are more likely to be hyperactive or have attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and unprovoked fits of anger, she said.

Medical professionals need more training in how to treat drug-exposed children; schools, birth control clinics and treatment facilities also play key roles, she said.

(Kerri Regan writes for the Redding Record Searchlight in Calif.)