Denver takes next step to help drug-endangered children

This morning, the Denver District Attorney's Office will release new city protocols for how law enforcement, social services and legal agencies should deal with kids found in drug-endangered households, such as those living in meth labs or indoor marijuana grows. While that may not sound momentous, it is. For far...

By Joel Warner

December 18, 2008

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This morning, the Denver District Attorney's Office will release new city protocols for how law enforcement, social services and legal agencies should deal with kids found in drug-endangered households, such as those living in meth labs or indoor marijuana grows.

While that may not sound momentous, it is. For far too long, kids living among drug users, pushers and manufacturers have fallen through the cracks of a system designed to bust the druggies but unequipped to deal with the little ones left behind. As we wrote about in the June 2007 story "You Do the Meth," a woman from the unlikeliest of backgrounds, Police Commander Lori Moriarty decided to change all that. Now she runs the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, which is working to fix the system nationwide -- and she plans to use new Denver protocols to encourage similar efforts in other cities. For some kids out there, this will be one heck of a Christmas present. -- Joel Warner

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Joel Warner is a former staff writer for Westword and International Business Times. He's also written for WIRED, Men's Journal, Men's Health, Bloomberg Businessweek, Popular Science, Slate, Grantland and many other publications. He's co-author of the 2014 book The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, published by Simon & Schuster.

Contact: Joel Warner