Report to the People
15th May 2006
Hidden Harm
Like, I
imagine, most of you, I am amazed that there is actually a debate about whether
a child should be left in the supposed “care” of drug addicted parents.
How can
anyone justify leaving a baby to fend for itself, while dad’s pimping mum,
robbing gran and mugging everyone else? How
can it be acceptable to leave a seven-year-old to get herself and her wee
brother up and ready for school, where they turn up with half a uniform and an
empty stomach?
It’s
therefore a victory for common sense that the Scottish Executive's new policy
for dealing with the hidden harm caused by drug abuse will put children’s
safety first.
Some,
however, have complained about the cost and dubious merits of taking drug
addicts’ children into care.
But who says,
I argued when Holyrood debated the policy on Thursday, that local authority care
is the only option? What about the
extended family? In my experience
of such cases, the grandparents are desperate to look after the child.
Too often, though, professionals conspire to exclude them.
More
importantly, how do we stop the problem arising in the first place?
Why are heroin addicts having babies they’re in no fit state to look
after? One possible first step
which I urged Ministers to explore is putting some form of oral contraceptive in
Methadone. If addicts couldn’t
start a family until clean, fewer babies would be born into a world of danger,
neglect and chaos. And that,
surely, is better for everyone.
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