Children found in drugs lab

By AINSLEY THOMSON

Two young children had to be decontaminated after police found them reeking of toxic chemicals in an apartment being used as a methamphetamine lab.

The 5-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy have been placed in the care of Child, Youth and Family.

They were found during an armed police raid on a Hamilton apartment building early on Saturday.

Police said the smell of chemicals has impregnated the children's clothes and toxic fumes were detected throughout the apartment.

The children and four adults in the apartment were put through the Fire Service's hazardous chemicals decontamination unit. About eight police also had to be decontaminated.

Hamilton Fire Service senior station officer Dave Gunn said everyone was upset about having to decontaminate the children.

"We didn't want to put them through the shower, but we had to."

The decontamination shower usually pumps out 1200 litres of cold water a minute, but the pressure was reduced for the children.

Mr Gunn said for the boy they pretended the shower was a game and he was "as good as gold", but it was a different matter with the little girl.

"She was crying a fair bit so we let her mother take her through it."

The children were then bundled in blankets and taken to hospital for a check-up.

They are believed to be unhurt.

Fire Service hazardous substances adviser Tony Haggerty said all chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine were toxic in some way.

"The kids would have soaked up the toxins. They are around an atmosphere where meth is being used and they are absorbing that.

"Even though they aren't using it themselves it gets into the atmosphere. Do they develop addictions without actually using it?"

Detective Inspector Gary Knowles, who heads the national drug intelligence bureau, said the case highlighted the need to introduce tougher penalties for methamphetamine manufacturers who endangered the lives of children.

He said the United States had legislation under which methamphetamine manufacturers endangering children received a mandatory 10-year sentence.

"We need to seriously look at it here. If they are not going to take notice of their own whanau or family we need to look at legislative changes."

Mr Knowles said he was hearing more frequently of labs where children had been present.

The soaring use of methamphetamine, particularly the pure form known as P, has been linked with a number of high-profile violent crimes. It led Parliament to reclassify it as a class-A drug, meaning manufacturers and dealers can face a life sentence.

Concern about the drug also prompted the Government to announce $6.6 million funding in this year's Budget for lab clean-up teams in Auckland and Wellington.

In 2000, nine methamphetamine labs were busted.

Last year, 147 were busted and about 100 have been found so far this year.

* Three men, aged 30, 33 and 40, and a woman, aged 33, were arrested in relation to the Hamilton lab and appeared in the Hamilton District Court yesterday on drug-making charges.

additional reporting: Patrick Gower

Herald Feature: The P epidemic