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VOLUME 18, NUMBER 30 CITRONELLE, ALABAMA

251.633.0123

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After 13 years of drug use, six children, a handful of stints in jail and rehab, and losing custody of an infant who tested positive for methamphetamine at birth, Michelle Marlowe is a testament to the impli-cations wrought on the children of addicts.

“I’m not the mother to them that I should be,” said Marlowe, 38, a Bald-win County resident who in early May checked into the Home of Grace, a non-profit rehab center for women in Eight Mile. “With meth, it doesn’t matter. If you want it, you’ll find it. It makes you emotionless. You don’t care who you hurt.”

Although meth abuse provides a consistent pulse in police reports and crime-related headlines locally and nationally, and as the method and prevalence of the drug contort and grow around laws barring its use, data trends may indicate a rise in the numbers of children affected by par-ents who use the illegal substance.

The number of chemical endan-germent cases has grown moderately

each year in Mobile County, coupled with a growth in the count of chil-dren affected by meth-related cases each year since 2007 nationally, ac-cording to statistics from the Mobile County Sheriff ’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

“It doesn’t choose one type of person,” said Marlowe, who said she has seen firefighters and teachers fall into meth abuse during her days using the drug.

Mobile County Sheriff Sam Co-chran said children of meth users

face “all kinds of problems,” includ-ing malnourishment, long absences from school and a severe lack of parental attention, along with the inherent physical dangers of living near meth labs.

“(Children) are just headed for severe consequences the longer they are with a parent that’s addicted or using meth,” he said.

Meth can be produced for less than $30 and an hour of labor, accord-

Chemical Endangerment

2009 2010 2011 2012(year to date)91

20

2826

15

22

total 911

ŹChildren affected by meth trend upward

BY HANNAH GARCIAhannah@thecallnews.com

Photo by Hannah Garcia/Call News

Recovering addict Michelle Marlowe shows off photos of her children while visiting in her counselor’s offi ce on July 23, the night before graduating from the center’s rehab program. Marlowe will celebrate a year of sobriety July 30; she is Home of Grace’s graduate program.

Megginson lobbies to build new schoolCommissioner Ken Megginson

said the Mobile County Board of Education feels that a new Citronelle High School facility is needed, and said it could be part of a $100 million bond issue for new construction that members are expected to discuss dur-ing their annual retreat in August.

Citronelle High is one of the oldest structures in the county, with por-tions dating to near the turn of the

20th century. Megginson said while funding a new school has not been officially considered, a new Citronelle facility has the support of all board members. However, he added that he wanted a construction plan in place before agreeing to borrow the money to build it.

“I firmly believe that everyone is in agreement that we need to build a new high school in Citronelle,” he said. “I can say that I want to see a school built in Citronelle, and if it is not a top priority in this bond issue, I don’t see going through with it. I will

support the bond issue, but I want to have a construction plan in place before we borrow the money. I don’t want to get the money and scramble to figure out how we are going to spend it. I look forward to meeting with the rest of the board and discussing the bonds and the future of Citronelle High School.”

The retreat was originally sched-uled to take place this month at the school system’s Environmental Studies Center but was changed at the request of board president Levon

BY WILLIE GRAYwilliegray@thecallnews.com

Municipal qualifi ers released

Chemical endangerment of a child cases in Mobile County by year since 2009Source: Mobile County Sheriff’s Offi ce

Enduring AddictionEnduring AddictionMothers, children & methMothers, children & meth

See METH CHILDREN, 6A

See NEW SCHOOL, 2A

Chickasaw’s Byron Pittman is the only Mo-bile County mayor who is running unopposed as the fields for the Aug. 28 municipal elections in the Call News coverage area have been finalized.

In Citronelle, incumbent Loretta Presnell is facing Al McDonald and Brad Walker.

In Creola, incumbent Don Nelson is facing Jerry Presnall.

In Mount Vernon, in-cumbent Jerry Lundy is facing three challengers in Verdell Trotter-Dees, James Adams and Leophus Levert Lyde.

In Saraland, incumbent Dr. Howard Rubenstein is facing Sidney Butler, and in Satsuma incumbent Wil-liam Stewart is facing Paul J. Murray.

There will be no elec-tion in Semmes, as five incumbents were unop-posed, including Mayor Judy Hale. Council mem-bers Dave Baker, Teresa Bonner, Phillip Dodd and Jerry Shirey will return to office, and Lawrence Webb will replace incumbent Mary Calhoun, who chose not to run.

The complete fields for the elections in each city or town are as follows:

ChickasawMayor: Byron Pittman

(incumbent, unopposed). Place 1: Mickey Day (in-

cumbent) and Jarrett Wil-liams.

Place 2: Henry Phillips (incumbent), Louretha

STAFF REPORTwww.thecallnews.com

See ELECTION, 2A

Non-resident registrationŹSatsuma schools move through waiting list before semester

STAFF REPORTwww.thecallnews.com

Registration for non-resident students who have been accepted into the new Satsuma school system will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 2 at Robert E. Lee Elementary School and Satsuma High School.

This includes non-res-ident students who have already been notified and students who will receive notification at the end of this week. Principals of each school are reviewing a waiting list of non-res-idents and will decide by July 26 who to accept.

Non-resident families must pay $650 in annual tuition per student. If fami-lies cannot register on Aug. 2, they must contact the elementary or high school for an appointment.

Satsuma resident stu-dents registered on July 19 and 24, and those resident students who could not reg-ister on those dates must also make appointments with the schools. For more information, contact the elementary school at 251-380-8210 or the high school at 251-380-8190.

In action from the July 17 Satsuma school board meeting:• A preventive mainte-

nance contract with Comfort Systems was approved for the el-ementary and high school campuses.

• The state-adopted text-book list for the 2012-13 school year was ap-proved.

• The annual custodial services bid was award-ed to Right Way Ser-vice with a low bid of $196,758.59 ($17,266.87 of that will be for an

See SATSUMA, 4A

Semmes writes check to local schools BY HANNAH GARCIA

hannah@thecallnews.com

What started as a fundraiser for a music class evolved into the City of Semmes distributing $35,040 to all of the schools in its jurisdiction during the city council’s work ses-sion Thursday night.

City councilman Phillip Dodd said the genesis of the idea began a few months ago when Allison Blalock and her father were trying to raise funds to start a piano class at Semmes Middle School.

“I thought, ‘Why can’t the City of Semmes be involved in this?’”

Dodd said. “I’m just so proud of this. I love the arts, and I think this money will be well used.”

To avoid being unfair, Mayor Judy Hale said she decided to split up the grant, pulled from the council’s discretionary funds, among the four schools within the city limits. The council calcu-lated the number of teachers at each school and granted $120 per teacher. Allentown and Semmes elementary schools received $6,480 and $5,160, respectively, Semmes Middle School got $10,560 and

See GRANT, 8A

Photo SubmittedPrincipals from Semmes area schools, school board member Ken Megginson (right) and council members show off a check to the Mobile County school system for $35,040 during a work session on July 19.

Photo Call ArchivesPictured is a photo of Citronelle High School taken in 1916. The building was constructed in 1914 and is still in use today.

Citronelle

COMMUNITY NEWSwww.thecallnews.com

ing to Marlowe.“It’s so sad because it’s

such a simple process,” Marlowe said.

The sheriff ’s office start-ed a meth initiative to miti-gate the spread of the highly addictive chemical cocktail in 2008 and recently insti-tuted new measures to con-trol the ingredients used to make meth, including a da-tabase tracking the sale of pseudoephedrine. Cochran said although meth-related cases cover all points of the county, he finds the highest concentrations to be in the western areas, including Wilmer, Georgetown, Fair-view and Chunchula. The spread of meth abuse began growing in the early 2000s as the number of crack cocaine abusers began to wane, ac-cording to Cochran, since the drug is cheaper and entails a longer high than other historically used and abused substances.

“It’s possible that it got a better foothold in those com-munities first,” Cochran said. “Then of course, there are businesses where, in the past, you could buy the pseu-doephedrine easily along the Highway 98 corridor.”

According to DEA data, 458 children were affected by meth incidents so far this year as of June, with three injured and one killed nationwide. The number of children affected has been on the rise, with 1,241 chil-dren affected in 2008, com-pared to 1,415 in 2009, 1,883 in 2010 and 1,963 in 2011.

Meth-related incidents jumped in 2009 with 10,847 reported cases, up from 7,465 in 2008. Reported cases have remained relatively stable since with 12,109 in 2010 and 11,051 last year. Agencies have reported 3,802 this year through the first of June.

Although meth-related arrests were down from 250 in 2010 to 124 last year in Mobile County, there has been an increase in labs discovered since last year and an annual increase in cases involving chemical endangerment of a child, according to data from the Mobile County Sheriff ’s Office.

Labs discovered declined from 67 in 2009 to 33 in 2011, although the number is already up to 41 so far this year. Chemical endanger-ment cases are up from 22 in 2009 to 28 last year and 15 cases so far this year. The modest increase may be due to increased vigilance from law enforcement, according to Cochran, who also noted that labs are becoming more mobile and harder to find.

“Labs are a little more elaborate,” Cochran said. “There are simpler ways to manufacture, quicker and easier with less space, which makes it much less noticeable.”

Although several of the stats regarding meth use are trending up, Cochran said he believes increased

enforcement and a relatively new law governing chemi-cal endangerment cases in Alabama, which includes grounds to prosecute fetal personhood cases, will begin to have a positive effect.

“As far as manufactur-ing, and as the laws have changed and further re-stricted the use and distri-bution of the drug, it has impacted the numbers,” Co-chran said. “As the initiative grows, I believe we’ll begin to see a trend in our favor.”

Finding the strength to change

Of Marlowe’s six chil-dren, one was taken from her at the hospital by the Alabama Department of Hu-man Resources in 2005 when the infant tested positive for meth after she was born in Tuscaloosa, where Marlowe is originally from.

“I was mad (when she was taken away),” she said. “I was so deceived that even though I was still in my meth addiction, I thought I could still be a good mother. You can’t be a good mother when you can’t get out of bed without hitting a pipe, if you sleep at all.”

After facing charges for manufacturing meth and going through lockup sev-eral times, Marlowe said she finally tapped the strength to overcome the compulsion to abuse meth.

“If I wanted it, I could find it. I haven’t conquered my addiction yet, but I have outgrown it,” Marlowe said. “I’m determined to stay sober, but I don’t want it to consume my life. In my drive to follow Christ, I’m not turning my recovery into an idol. Addiction is a significant part of my life, but I’m not going to dwell on it. It will always be there, but it doesn’t define who I am.”

Marlowe said she is fac-ing 25 to 99 years on a pend-ing manufacturing charge in Baldwin County but said she is pleading not guilty. She still has custody of her 3-year-old, Willow. She also has a 21-year-old son, Dusty, a 8-year-old daughter named Rosa, two sons in Si-las (Calen, 6, and HiSun, 5), and an 11-year-old daughter named Karma.

“I will be a mother to her when I get out,” Marlowe

said. “Meth is a horrible thing, but there is hope of getting better. I hope to take my life and turn it into an example of that. It’s a struggle, but you can do it.”

Marlowe graduated from the Home of Grace’s 12-week rehab program on Tuesday. During her addiction, she said she spent time in Mex-ico avoiding police capture while she was on Tuscalo-osa’s “most wanted” list for possession charges. She was sober for three years after a short stint in jail, she said.

She moved to the Ala-bama Gulf Coast after a stint in rehab in 2008, saying she “wanted to move where no one knew who I was,” but still fell back into addiction after spending time with a meth user in her family after evacuating for a hur-ricane in 2009.

“It was worse the second time around,” Marlowe said. “Once you know freedom from the drug, the addic-tion becomes such a burden. There’s so much bondage there. It’s horrible. I know it can be broken, I believe it can be broken. If addic-tion is a disease, then there has to be a cure. And it is a disease.”

Her oldest child, Dusty, 21, is one of the rare exam-ples of children who flour-ish despite having a parent addict. He has supported her through her various drug-related trials, according to Marlowe, who described her son as an “incredible indi-vidual.” He recently gradu-ated from the University of Alabama with a degree in computer sciences and works as a data tracker for a textile production company.

Dusty said while growing up he was able to separate himself from his mother’s drug use.

“The truth is I was never raised by her. My story is a little different. I kind of knew what was going on, but I was able to separate myself from it,” said Dusty, who claimed the line of com-munication with his mother is thin at times, but the rela-tionship is not negative.

Dusty was raised by his maternal grandmother and began voluntarily going to church at a young age, ac-cording to Marlowe. After dedicating his life to Christ

at age 9, her son began carv-ing out a fulfilling and in-dependent life for himself, she said.

“It’s not an extremely ma-jor part of my life, but it has some weight,” he said of his mother’s addiction. “I think the only thing that people have to realize is the respon-sibility they have to take for that person. If it does affect you, it’s not something that’s just going to go away. Take responsibility. It burdens you badly, just seek counsel-ing. Ask for help.”

Hope for a better lifeHelp is always available

at the Home of Grace, ac-cording to another graduate who called herself Hope. She said she fell into meth addiction five years ago and is putting her life back to-gether after hitting bottom, losing her home, job and her daughter, and being forced to live on a creek bank.

“On Sept. 30, 2009, I en-tered the Home of Grace for Women with the clothes on my back and a very small glimmer of hope that my life

could be saved,” she said. “At the age of 31, I had become completely consumed by crystal meth. In a short two years, I lost my house, job, car, custody of my oldest daughter and every ounce of self-respect that I had for myself.”

After facing a raid and guns pointed in her face by police, Hope said reality hit harder after a few days without the drug.

“Any person in their right mind would call it quits, not an addict,” she said. “A creek bank was my place of residence for sev-eral days and the water was my way to bathe and drink. It was only after all of my family and friends decided to stop enabling me that I chose to get help. A few days without meth, the reality of what I had done to my fam-ily, myself and most of all to my children hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew then that if I didn’t get help, I would lose my life or go to prison.”

Hope said the Home of Grace taught her how to forgive others, forgive her-self and love herself again. She now has custody of or is building a relationship with all of her children, has her former job back and has a new car. She recently moved into her own home in May.

“When you choose to go down that road to recov-ery, never forget where you come from or the pain you endured while you were there so you will realize that anything is better than the life you were in,” she said.

Marlowe said her time at the Home of Grace has helped her tap into her faith, and she hopes to go into counseling specifically for recovering meth addicts. After her home in a Gulf

Shores trailer park was stripped and she forfeited custody of five of her six children, Marlowe elected to enter into the rehab center’s graduate program called the Esther House. The aftercare program is meant to act as a transition from the 12-week rehabilitation period, in which participants continue to live on the campus for up to a year, hold a job and pay rent.

“If they establish a clean way of living in the pro-gram, they’re more likely to follow that pattern in the real world, to continue working on it out there,” said Ronda Daugherty, Mar-lowe’s on-campus counsel-or. “That’s what it’s about, forming good habits and implementing it in their lives. It’s about forming a new way of living.”

Most of the employees at the non-profit are gradu-ates themselves, including Daugherty. Marlowe said she is staying with the pro-gram because she is not sure if she is fully prepared for a drug-free, independent life, but she is bound by an un-mitigated optimism about her future. She hopes to work for the Home of Grace as a counselor when she completes her transition.

“There should be more treatment centers geared toward meth addiction,” Marlowe said. “I’m taking this one day at a time, no firm plans yet. I’m not go-ing to glorify my addiction in shaping my future. It’s not pessimistic, it’s realis-tic. You don’t know what you’re going to do, but I’m not afraid of it. I need to be stronger than it.”

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6A | Wednesday, July 25, 2012 CALL NEWS

CH3

NH CH 3Meth Labs Discovered

2009 2010 2011 2012 (year to date)1909019

67

49

3341

4949494449 33333333 4114444

19090

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190total

Meth Children continued from page 1A

Meth Labs Discovered in Mobile County by year since 2009Source: Mobile County Sheriff’s Offi ce

“I’m not afraid of it, I need to be stronger than it.” -Michelle Marlowe

The Home of Grace is a nonprofi t drug rehab shelter specifi cally for women in Eight Mile, with a sister nonprofi t for men in Mississippi. For more information, visit www.homeofgraceforwomen.com.

Photo by Hannah Garcia/Call News