Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New drug wave delivers 'crank babies'
sacbee ^ | 4-17-05

Posted on 04/17/2005 1:52:10 PM PDT by LouAvul

.....snip...........

As many as one in 10 babies born at UC Davis Medical Center between 1990 and 2002 had been exposed to methamphetamine - known as crank - according to a recent UC Davis study of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. Sacramento County numbers underscore the problem: Half of the babies that tested positive for drug exposure here last year had traces of methamphetamine and other amphetamines in their systems. Funding for studies on how those crank babies are faring is skimpy, researchers say, noting that they have been loath to generate a buzz that vilifies another generation of mothers. They've also shied away from stigmatizing the children and dredging up public cynicism over the crack baby uproar.

But without such a buzz - and the resulting funding - county health and social workers worry about how to adequately cope with the crank babies at a particularly crucial moment - just as the former crack babies reach childbearing age. Research has shown drug-exposed babies are more susceptible to drug use as they grow up and to continuing the cycle with their own offspring.

"We watched one group march through all of our systems," said Penelope Clarke, administrator of Sacramento's Countywide Services Agency. "Now we're seeing them reaching an age when they can have children of their own ... The bottom line is we are seeing (drug-exposed) babies having babies and coming through the Child Protective Services system."

snip.........

The Volunteers of America's Options for Recovery center in Del Paso Heights, for instance, was established in 1990 to support mothers coming clean from crack. Today about seven in 10 clients sign up to kick meth instead.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: crank; meth; newborns; wodlist

1 posted on 04/17/2005 1:52:11 PM PDT by LouAvul
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: LouAvul

How sad. I live in Nortern Cal and have been told that it is the meth capital of the US. I wonder why? It really breaks your heart to think of those poor innocent babies...


2 posted on 04/17/2005 1:57:15 PM PDT by scott says
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coleus

ping


3 posted on 04/17/2005 2:03:28 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LouAvul

Yea, legalize the drugs, so they, messed up babies can be "legal" ?
Thank you Mr. SorAss!

Freeeppeeeee


4 posted on 04/17/2005 2:09:18 PM PDT by Leo Carpathian (FReeeePeee!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LouAvul

This is so sad. My husband's mother did drugs the whole time she was pregnant with him, and then later exposed him to and gave him drugs (incl. meth). He ended up being a user for a long time. Thankfully, he has been off meth for many years (I wouldn't have dated him otherwise!) He had an ex-girlfriend that deliberately impregnated herself (long story but other people verified) and then did meth while pregnant. She ended up giving the baby up for adoption to a couple in the midwest, and I often wonder (daily) how he is now and whether he suffers the consequences.


5 posted on 04/17/2005 2:12:48 PM PDT by conservative cat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Leo Carpathian
I don't think meth should ever be legalized. It is a filthy, destructive, dangerous thing. I lost a lot of friends to its use when it became popular in the NW in the 90's. I am, however, for legalized marijuana.

Remember that alcohol is legal. I have been around fetal alcohol children...not pretty.

6 posted on 04/17/2005 2:15:03 PM PDT by conservative cat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Leo Carpathian
I don't think meth should ever be legalized. It is a filthy, destructive, dangerous thing. I lost a lot of friends to its use when it became popular in the NW in the 90's. I am, however, for legalized marijuana.

Remember that alcohol is legal. I have been around fetal alcohol children...not pretty.

7 posted on 04/17/2005 2:15:04 PM PDT by conservative cat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: scott says

Yep. All the sex, drugs and rock n' roll. Now the babies pay.


8 posted on 04/17/2005 2:19:42 PM PDT by cubreporter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: conservative cat

That group is just one selfish crowd. As long as their appetites are satisfied who cares about anything or anyone else. So what if they have babies born addicts? They make me sick!


9 posted on 04/17/2005 2:21:04 PM PDT by cubreporter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: LouAvul

It's becoming a very big problem in Wisconsin, as well. H#ll, we've got all the farm-related materials right here to make it!

This weekend the guys were working on the fields. They have an easement to come through our property to get to the "Back Four Hundred" and they were hauling in tanker after tanker of Ammonia to spread. DH was talking to one of the guys, and he said that you can get $300/gallon for it "on the street."

So, we mugged him.

(Just kiddin'!) You gotta laugh, or you'll continue to cry over those poor babies. It never ceases to amaze me that there will always be the "new, new thing" in illegal drugs to be the 'crisis du jour.' Crack Babies were all the "rage" a generation ago; now we have Meth Babies. It's maddening!

I don't see an end in sight to the creative ways in which people can slowly kill themselves and those around them. :(


10 posted on 04/17/2005 2:28:54 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LouAvul

b-b-but I thought drug abuse is a victimless crime??? How can this be???


11 posted on 04/17/2005 3:03:22 PM PDT by GLDNGUN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservative cat

I agree with you completely but I have wondered:

If a person shoots someone, we rightfully blame the person and not the gun. However, when when a person abuses drugs, we blame the drugs more than the person.

I don't think any man-made recreational drugs (aside from alcohol) should be legal but in reality if the PEOPLE didn't want them, there would be no market. An inanimate thing like a drug can't do wrong but people can.


12 posted on 04/17/2005 3:36:04 PM PDT by L98Fiero
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: L98Fiero
If a person shoots someone, we rightfully blame the person and not the gun. However, when when a person abuses drugs, we blame the drugs more than the person.

I think the person is to blame, not the drugs. We had a case here where a naked man on crack stole a deputies gun and killed him. Everyone made a big deal about how he was on drugs and it clouded his decision making. My thought then (and now) is that his free will was exercised when he took the drug, therefore he was responsible.

13 posted on 04/17/2005 3:50:08 PM PDT by conservative cat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: LouAvul; neverdem; RepubMommy; Born Conservative; SunkenCiv
The poor kids will probably have life-long problems and will require special education in school. Get the checkbooks out, taxes will rise. I remember the wave of students back in the 1980's with the crack babies.
14 posted on 04/17/2005 6:19:16 PM PDT by Coleus (God Bless our beloved Pope John Paul II, Rest in Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservative cat; Leo Carpathian
Remember that alcohol is legal. I have been around fetal alcohol children...not pretty.

Do they constitute sufficient reason to ban alcohol? I'd say not.

15 posted on 04/18/2005 8:25:42 AM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: GLDNGUN
b-b-but I thought drug abuse is a victimless crime??? How can this be???

Should we ban for all adults everything that's harmful to pregnant women's babies? I don't think so.

16 posted on 04/18/2005 8:27:48 AM PDT by Know your rights (The modern enlightened liberal doesn't care what you believe as long as you don't really believe it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Know your rights

I would also say not. I love my margaritas and glasses of red wine. I even like a beer now and then. I just used it as an example that illegal drugs aren't the only ones that cause birth defects.


17 posted on 04/18/2005 3:55:36 PM PDT by conservative cat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: conservative cat
"I don't think meth should ever be legalized. It is a filthy, destructive, dangerous thing...[sic]"

So is homo butt sex and it is legal.

18 posted on 04/30/2005 4:16:55 PM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson