Meth abuse and children

Ok. Let’s tackle a big issue.  Perhaps the biggest issue. So, in our line of work, we are in homes that have had a meth lab in it or in homes that has or have had meth users in it.  The sad part of our work is that those homes that we go into and find meth in, we also often find children.
 
Yep. Children. And Meth.  Together.
 
I remembered reading an article from November (2016) where a couple were injecting their children with heroin. Uh huh. Injecting their own children with heroin.
 
Whilst that’s not something you see everyday. For us, in our line of work, we see children living in drug contaminated conditions and therefore exposed to drugs all the time.
 
Meth is pervasive.  It contaminates everything it touches.  Every surface. It penetrates porous surfaces and ‘sticks’ to non-porous. It will remain in clothing, on carpets, on tables, chairs, couches, you name it, it’s on it. Children touching these surfaces then go onto eat food with meth on their hands, or, worse still, eat food that was directly exposed to meth vapour.  The P contamination can take a long time to go through their system and the damage done could be irreparable. ​

The article goes onto talk about how long the heroin remained in the children’s system.  It states: “Two months after the children were taken into protective custody, authorities performed hair follicle tests on the children, according to the court documents. The 6-year-old tested negative for heroin; the 4-year-old had heroin in her system but not enough to result in a positive test; the 2-year-old tested positive for the drug.”

​One of the Detectives involved said “We unfortunately find kids living in deplorable conditions all too often, but we don't see parents intentionally putting drugs into kids.”

Ashlee Hutt, and her boyfriend, Leroy "Mac" McIver have been charged for allegedly injecting their young children with heroin. The youngest child, aged 2, would normally fall asleep after her parents injected the "feel-good medicine".

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