Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jun 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Joey Thompson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG ADDICTS' CHILDREN IGNORED BY AGENCIES

Druggies Get A Free Ride While Tots Get Almost Nothing

While Kathy's still learning her ABCs, her grandma worries that the wordy, 
wide-eyed child will soon be headed for our drug-drenched streets.

No question, the odds are stacked against the five-year-old, given that her 
mother has been mainlining cocaine and heroin for years. But that, says 
Dina F., who has full custody of her granddaughter, is just one of the 
challenges facing the gregarious child.

While charity groups rush to give addicts free heroin and a comfy place to 
ingest their junk, Dina is struggling to feed, clothe and school one of 
their kids -- with next to no help from the raft of government agencies 
jockeying for the privilege of cushioning the daily chaos that faces their 
using parents. Dina contacted me to point out the failure of our costly 
social network to help the guiltless kids of drug heads.

They didn't ask to acquire an appetite for narcotics in the womb. They 
didn't ask to be the progeny of adults who consider the grasp of a needle 
to be their grip on reality.

The street-smart 29-year-old user strolled into court a few years back with 
publicly funded lawyers to thwart grandma's efforts to rescue the child. 
Dina, 47, a single parent on a fixed income, had to find her own $10,000 
for the trip to family court, which became necessary after social workers 
threatened to seize the then-toddler from her mom.

It took more than a year for the Families Ministry to agree to contribute 
$270 monthly to Kathy's care. Dina didn't qualify for a subsidy to offset 
up to $720 in monthly daycare. And the court, given she was pushing for 
custody, made her pay for half her daughter's random drug tests.

For freeloading users, free legal support can be just the beginning. In a 
letter to East Vancouver MLA Jenny Kwan, Dina took inventory of the 
freebies available to her daughter -- drug treatment and counselling 
programs, food, housing, dental, medical, clothes, methadone, needles and 
bleach.

Meanwhile, Kathy is bound to be a special-needs elementary pupil, but 
there's no guarantee the programs will be available.

"The municipality's four-pillar approach . . . places the needs of drug 
addicts over the needs of their children," she pointed out.

"As a society it makes sense to assist drug addicts in getting clean. But 
the monetary/emotional cost and consequences of that assistance should not 
be borne by their babies or those who are ensuring these children do not 
fall through the cracks."

Time, Dina argues, is running out. Kids exposed to drugs prenatally are 
destined to become the next generation of addicts, usually on the road by 
the time they're eight. That means Dina has three years to figure out how 
to stop Kathy from destruction. "I can't find anyone who can tell me what 
to do or how to help my granddaughter not become a drug addict," she said.

"My granddaughter needs her mother -- so by all means provide services for 
my daughter, get her all the help she needs. But don't do so at the cost of 
ignoring those we have a chance of saving from future drug abuse.

"Given that heroin/cocaine addicts are known to repeat the pattern of 
relapsing and getting clean, shouldn't the bulk of our attention go to 
making sure that the children of today's drug addicts do not become the 
drug addicts of tomorrow?"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom