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Residual of meth effect child clothes?

dmom Residual of meth effect child clothes?
Could a child get the effects of the drug from wearing clothing that had been exposed to meth smoking in the home or vehicle? If so would they not sleep just as the users don't sleep. I am new to all this and trying to learn all I can to help a young couple get help for the user and a reality check for the other.
Sfj Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?


dmom Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
Thanks so much, I feel better. Maybe it is just the change in living arrangements right now that made the child sleep so fitful for about 3 hours and then wake up at 1:30AM and not sleep again until 8:00.
from hell
Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?

SFj gave you the right answer .
I just can't stop thinking that I would be more concerned about second hand (meth ) smoke.

Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
He didn't say that.
The question was can a child be affected by clothing that has been exposed to meth -  not being directly exposed to meth smoke.

I agree with SfJ- no a child nor an adult will get high off of being in contact with clothing that has been in contact with meth smoke.
If that were possible, I would have been high as a kite for the 3 years my husband used.
He had some type of clothing on every time he hit the foil. I had daily contact with him and his clothes.
Never once got high.
Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
I am sorry that my opinion differs from the others, but yes, you can pick up a slight residual affect from the meth. I wish I still had the articles that I found off of the internet earlier this year...I will have to, do some searching.

An old friend of mine who is very religious and does not do drugs/alcohol... tested positive, when given a test for drugs. Her niece that lived down the street was a meth addict, and meth was being smoked in her house around her kids. When CPS tried to take her kids, my friend, Thelma, was going to get temporary custody of them.

Thelma was tested for drugs and came up, positive for meth. The articles I had originally found, said that meth can be transferred through direct contact of items that have residue on them .(diapers, clothes...)

My friend also, described being jittery when watching the kids or going to her nieces apartment... I will try to find the article if I can.
Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
Here's one article, but this is not the one I was looking for:
February 12, 2006
A child sleeps on the floor in a house on Orange Street while an undercover Medford police officer searches the room for evidence of drugs.
Mail Tribune / Jim Craven

Secondhand METH smoke
Mail Tribune


On probation for burglary, forgery, theft and possessing meth, Davis, 26, was released just a couple of days ago from the county's Community Justice work center. He smoked meth the same day, he said.

Since his release, Davis found his way to an acquaintance's Orange Street garage, where he's been camping out. Davis's meth pipes found their way into the man's house and upstairs into his sock drawer, where narcotics detectives discovered them Thursday.

"And that's the same pipe we see with all the meth users," said Medford police Detective Gary Hatten.


But crystal meth isn't just giving users a quicker, longer-lasting high. Health and child-welfare workers say the smoke is invading the bodies of addicts? children, who are testing positive for meth after they're taken out of their homes. As local officials implement a new protocol advocating urinalysis of children removed from environments of meth use and sales, the drug is only expected to show up more often in child victims.

"The highest levels (of meth) are in children who are around the chronic users," said Curtis Oddo, pediatrician at the Children's Advocacy Center in Medford.


Testing and decontaminating children found in drug houses is the focus of this week's Drug-Endangered Children Conference. Child-welfare workers Tuesday will join police, educators, medical professionals, drug treatment specialists and others at Jackson County's first such conference, the third in Oregon.


Meth labs have since declined dramatically in Oregon, a trend officials attribute to tougher state laws that put cold pills containing pseudo ephedrine  used to make meth  in secure locations at retail sites. But that doesn't mean kids are no longer at risk.






"The children are very irritable," Oddo said. "They may be jittery; they cry more; they don't feed well."

The only way a child so young could have detectable levels of meth is through breast milk from a mother who's using or by inhaling secondhand meth smoke, Oddo said. As meth is metabolized fairly rapidly, children testing positive for the drug likely were exposed within the previous 12 hours, the doctor added.


"We're looking for a global assessment," he said.


"There's just a ton of people crashing," Piels said.

Most of those who staggered from the home's four bedrooms at about 9:30 a.m. didn't live there. Some said they were homeless. Donald said he didn't even know he had so many house guests.

"It's like every frickin door that was opened there was another family living behind," Piels said.

One woman stayed the night with her 6-year-old son after her car wouldn't start. But crashing on the floor covered with a comforter is no kind of sleeping arrangement for the woman's child, Piels said, pointing out a space heater perilously close to a mattress.


"There's nothing in this house that you need to come back here for."



"There's stuff going on in here that you have no idea about, I'm sure," Hatten told him.



It soon became apparent that the pipes were brand new, likely Davis's handiwork. Detectives also located one clouded with meth residue inside a plastic container along with Donald's blood pressure medication. It was the only evidence of meth in the house.

"I don't know if there's ever a lot (of meth) here, but there's definitely a lot of using going on here," Hatten said.


"A lot's going to depend on the UAs (urine analyses)," Piels said.

The social worker couldn't complete her investigation before speaking to Donald's wife, who wasn't at home. At this point, the family's two elementary-school-aged kids will stay with their parents, Piels said, but their father was facing a possible meth-possession charge.

"If you don't know who's sleeping in the bedroom downstairs, how do you know that your child is safe?" Piels asked.


Social workers decontaminate kids
Decontamination is automatic when children are removed from methamphetamine labs. The process is at child-welfare workers? discretion when kids are removed from a house where drug use is suspected.


Exposed skin is washed using packaged, pre-moistened wipes.

If contamination is obvious, workers may change children's clothes before transporting them.

Children are taken to the local Department of Human Services office or the Children's Advocacy Center, showered and given clean clothing.


No items from the home are taken with the children.
For more information, visit www.oregondec.org or www.nationaldec.org


You can find this story online at: www.mailtribune.com/archi...1local.htm

Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
Yes you can test positive if you are around people who are SMOKING it, but it would take a lot of smoke to test positive. You can not however test positive by coming in contact with the drug. That would mean a lot of cops would test positive and that I could hold dope in my hand and get high.
Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
I'm starting to get a little more interested and maybe concerned now that there are so many differing opinions. It's looking a lot like know one knows exactly how possible exposure from meth smoke is. Considering it is really not down to an exact science-meth use, I mean, I think we might keep an open mind and do some more investigating.

gee, it could certainly explain why I, who have never seen or smelled meth being used that I knew of, have acted like I was having meth psychosis quite a few times when dealing with meth addicts that were driving me CRAZY!!! Considering it doesn't smell...how would anyone know?

oh, and if meth can be absorbed through mucous membranes in the nose, then it could be absorbed through the skin. especially if kiddos touched a pipe or something that had meth residue on it then picked their sweet little noses. Then there is the issue of sharing hand towels...I also wonder about the residue from cookin meth then touching things that kids in the home might touch.

Goodness, what a powder keg. but maybe not at all-maybe just urban legend
Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
I can see indeed where second hand smoke would play a part.
It would indeed be possible I suppose to get high.
Especially for a small child as it would not take very much at all.

But there is no way you will get high off of playing with clothes that have been in contact with meth smoke.
Sorry but there isn't.
You have to ingest meth to get high.
It has to come into your body in some measurable quantity.

As Savannah said, that would mean I could just hold the rock and get high.
It doesn't work like that.

Explain your experience please.
This has me confused.
What do you mean by acting like you were having meth psychosis?

Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
The playing with clothes that have been around meth may have some ill effects, but it would not show up for quite some time. I knew of a young woman who just died in the past 5 years who contracted cancer from the asbestos that was on her father's clothes. She played near them when she was young.
Re: Residual of meth effect child clothes?
What I am saying is someone can not get high or test positive merely by touching meth or coming into contact with an object that has meth residue on it.

I suppose that in theory there could be affects from touching a meth pipe then picking your nose, but the chances of getting high off it or testing positive are almost impossible.

I mean if I get a little gasoline on my hands and I stick my fingers in my mouth I am not going to get sick and die. Probably wouldn't even get a tummy ache.

I am not a doctor or a scientist, but these are things that are simple to figure out and your going to learn something about the drug you used to use.

See also:

How long does meth stay in your hair follicles?

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