Comments on: Help Pregnant Drug-Addicts, Don’t Jail Them

By: Feministe » Justice for Regina McKnight

Feministe » Justice for Regina McKnight — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:06:06 +0000

[...] Help Pregnant Drug Addicts, Don’t Jail Them Prosecuting Neo-Natal Drug Use: A Public Health Issue Prosecuting Pregnant Drug-Addicted Mothers [...]

By: Feministe » Good Reads

Feministe » Good Reads — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:26:37 +0000

[...] charging drug addicts with murder is cruel and, in my opinion, unconstitutional. See previous posts here, here, and, most comprehensively, [...]

By: Rosehiptea

Rosehiptea — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:47:09 +0000

Alix — to be honest I don’t know if there is a more appropriate term and it looks like other people are pretty OK with “drug addict” since it’s in the original post so maybe I was overreacting. But looking at it I felt like I wasn’t acknowledging that these are people (and in this case women and mothers) and not just a problem, and it ended up bugging me when I looked at my own comment.

By: roses

roses — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:14:59 +0000

Holly, I don’t think anybody is saying “a little crack is okay.” They’re just saying that
1) Throwing women with addictions into jail isn’t going to help her, the baby, or anyone else
2) Lack of medical care and malnutrition contribute to the problems facing the children of women with addictions, so maybe instead of jailing them we should focus on making sure they at least get good nutrition and medical care, so that the child can turn out as healthy as is possible under the circumstances.

This is just another instance of right wingers pretending to care about babies, but really only caring about making sure their moral values are enforced. If they really cared about the babies, they’d be helping the woman through her pregnancy rather than jailing her.

By: Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:06:47 +0000

Yes, benzos are bad. I have a suspicion that crack and, in general, cocaine, are worse.

Not necessarily. Depressants like alcohol and benzos may be worse for fetal development than stimulants like crack. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that different kinds of drugs have different actions on the body, right? ;-)

Not to mention that, again, alcoholics are extremely likely to be malnourished, and malnutrition in and of itself can lead to birth defects (which is why everything for women is now fortified with folic acid and other B vitamins). So that is probably affecting outcomes along with the heavy alcohol use.

By: holly r.

holly r. — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:23:08 +0000

okay, I probably should clarify: No, I do not believe that women should be jailed for having an addiction and carrying a pregnancy to term.

Oh, and that I am aware that the immediate effects of in-utero exposure to crack, were way trumped up. It’s what we see years later (like children in their pre-teen and teenage years, that might be related to crack exposure, et cetera.

So, didn’t mean to fly off of the handle- obviously my work/studies/ own doctors’ directives, make me a more than a little biased.

By: holly r.

holly r. — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:18:02 +0000

Mnemosyne- that could very well be one of those things. I do wonder about that myself, as the highest predictor of a mental health issue is a first-degree relative with a mental health issue (sibling or bio-parent). And, the adults I was working with last year- all dual-diagnosis. So, not tossing that idea out of the water, at all.

In fact, that’s how I became focused on dual-diagnosis: years working with children that were chemically dependent, and surprise, conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder. I wondered which came first. A lot of substance abuse issues arise from people self-medicating. Not uncommon, at all. Then, there is the argument from the mental health community: are some people, such as those with bipolar disorder, at some predisposition for developing addictions?

By: holly r.

holly r. — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:09:44 +0000

oh, I am going to acknowledge that a MAJOR problem with addicts, is poor nutrition (which will affect a developing fetus). I am not arguing against that; or any of the other social factors at play when one is an addict (I think it’s fine to say this, as I have worked with this population in a therapy setting), and can come up with no more politically correct word for it, although “addict” does sound harsh.

At any rate, I’m just not ready to buy it, yet.

By: holly r.

holly r. — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:51:16 +0000

I have to agree with Kate and Beth. I’m not going to go into my years working with both “regular” children, and “children that have been exposed to heavy drug use, in utero”. Instead, I’ll just point out that yes, I am almost done with MSW in Clinical Social Work; oh, and nevermind that because I have a “medical” condition that causes me to be a life-long insomniac- well, I guess if I ever want to have biological children- I can’t get pregnant. You know, because I will have to be on life-long medications to make me sleep.
(Oh, yeah, forgot to mention- it was all of my doctors that have told me that I cannot get pregnant on any of these prescription medications for sleep)
Yes, benzos are bad. I have a suspicion that crack and, in general, cocaine, are worse.

Oh, does this give us license to ignore the very real Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (which can only be diagnosed once a child has entered elementary school). Yeah, I’ve worked with those, as well. Facial abnormalities, anyone?

I am definitely ready to take into account the social factors at play, in these situations- but, I’m not ready to bite into this one- and say a little crack here and there, is harmless.

By: Alix

Alix — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:08:29 +0000

Rosehiptea-

I don’t mean this in the snide way it’s going to sound, but what’s wrong with “drug addicts”?

I’m not always up-to-date on the language. What’s the more appropriate term?

(Is feeling dumb.)