Meth-using moms who fail to clean up their lives are losing their parental rights

This year, 48,000 children were referred to juvenile court. Only 8 percent were "child welfare matters," where children were removed from their homes. But the problem, Wahl said, is that those cases take 55 percent of the judges' time. The majority involve meth use, he said.

• Treatment providers along the Wasatch Front say there is a two- to three-month wait for services. About 25 people show up each Monday morning at Cornerstone Counseling in Salt Lake City for six to eight open treatment slots, said Gary Baker, executive director.

"What happens while they wait for treatment?" asks Pat Fleming, Salt Lake County Substance Abuse Services director. "They're committing crimes."

• Utah's successful drug courts, which highlight offender accountability, supervision and treatment, turn away many more people than they can take.

In Provo, for example, 164 people have entered drug court since its inception in 1999.

• The DCFS recorded 11,000 substantiated reports of child abuse in 2003, up from 9,800 in 2002 and 9,500 in 2001. In custody cases, drug and alcohol abuse by parents is the top reason for removing children younger than age 11 from a home.

Drugs or alcohol factored into 81 percent of foster care cases involving 1,086 children younger than age 6 in Utah last year. Arnold-Williams says a big chunk of these cases are meth-related.

Says Tina, a meth addict and mother of two, "Everybody I know right now has had their kids taken away by the state."

In 2003, 45.6 percent of women arrested in Salt Lake City tested positive for meth, according to the National Institute of Justice's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program in 25 cities. Only Honolulu and San Diego had higher percentages.

Salt Lake City ranked first at 53.7 percent in terms of women arrestees using meth in the past year, an indication of the drug's pervasiveness.

In Davis County last year, for example, nearly 450 people were admitted for meth addiction, compared to 300 for alcohol and 250 for marijuana. In Utah County, the number of treatment admissions for alcohol and meth are almost equal, but alcohol is on the decline while meth is on the rise.

In Salt Lake City, alcohol admissions are dropping, while admission for cocaine, heroin and marijuana are holding steady. The only one increasing is methamphetamine.

The level of crime and violence and the impact on society is greater with meth than with other illegal substances, police say.

"If we can turn those tides quicker, we will be better off. They really are stretching us," said Marjean Searcy, coordinator of the Salt Lake Police Department's Meth Initiative.