More Needs Done to Protect W.Va. Babies
More than 800 West Virginia women have admitted using illegal drugs while they were pregnant during the past year. That is about 5 percent of the total number of women who had babies in our state during that period.
We confess we have no idea of what can be done about the problem. Law enforcement agencies have trouble enough cracking down on use of illegal drugs in general.
But something needs to be done. Women who use illegal drugs during pregnancy put the health of their babies at risk. Health care professionals say that use of illegal drugs by expectant mothers doubles the risk of them delivering low birth-weight babies. A variety of other physical problems can be inflicted on the babies.
The statistics, collected from questionnaires women filled out after giving birth, are bad enough. But it is likely they are just the tip of the iceberg. As Dr. Martha Mullett, a pediatrician at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, noted, many of the women probably did not admit using illegal drugs.
That's because they know what they have done is illegal - and wrong.
We know there's a problem. Now, health care and law enforcement professionals need to think about how to attack it. Something needs to be done to protect the babies.
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Puremagix
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11-28-08 11:03 AM
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The Bible is full of scriptures where God advocated the death penalty for crimes of murder, which by the way, the death penalty is not murder and if you think it is, then you are in a losing battle with God himself. When the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" was given by God, it was referring to premeditated murder, not executions for crimes such as rape and unjustified killings. Since many people die from badly manufactured drugs and overdoses, the person selling the drugs may as well have taken a gun and shot the person himself. The reason our prisons are overflowing and filling as fast as they are being built is due to your kind of thinking. Like it or not, there are some people in this world that deserve to die and if you have a problem with that, then you need to take that up with the Creator. Maybe Publius would like to tell us if he is a drug user? It has been my experience that many who argue the case against prosecution for drugs are users themselves.
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Publius
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11-26-08 9:49 AM
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... (cont.) ... Prisons and jails are filling up as fast as they can be built -- while WE, the taxpayers, get stuck footing the bill. Our rights to privacy under the 4th Amendment are about as dead as the Founding Fathers. What's wrong with this picture? Something isn't working--why keep doing it over and over, year after years? Like EVERY war, it's good for business--the business of a very select few greedy and unprincipled special interests, I suppose. They give LOTS of money to the Republican AND Democrat National Committees, drug-scare PACs, etc. to keep things just the way they are.
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Publius
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11-26-08 9:37 AM
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It's always interesting to see what I assume to be the "Christian Republican" response. "Death penalty?" Oh please, do tell, what would Jesus Himself think? Of course, "Christians" don't like to answer such "rhetorical" questions. Does that include liquor store owners and clerks who sell alcohol to pregnant females? Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm all for healthy babies but any woman who puts getting high/drunk before her unborn baby is in need of the services of a mental-health professional NOT a correctional officer. All studies have proven that treatment is far more effective than incarceration in dealing with drug addiction but "conservatives" choose to ignore the facts and instead champion their inhumane, callous, vindictive, Anti-Christian, Nixonian "War on (some) Drugs." Anybody remember back in the mid-1980s the Republicans promising a "drug-free America by 1995"? The drugs are still everywhere. Prisons are
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Puremagix
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11-25-08 1:13 PM
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I disagree with Publius. We need to make the penalties of selling drugs so costly that it just isn't worth the risks. Every state needs a "Three Strikes Law." I am not talking prison, I am talking the death penalty for three time offenders. Drugs are responsible for destroying more lives in this country than any other cause and should carry a penalty befitting the crime. Drug dealers don't care how many babies start out life addicted to drugs or how many lives they destroy, so why should we have a problem putting these people to death? When you cut off the source, you eliminate the problem and in return you have a decreasing number of arrest, drug addicted babies, mothers on drugs and the effects are felt all the way down the line. As for smokers, less of them can be attributed more to tobacco being cost prohibitive than education. No one starts smoking out of ignorance, they know the risks and are willing to take the chance. I know, I used to be a smoker myself.
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Publius
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11-24-08 12:05 PM
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The problem isn't only about "illegal drugs." Anybody ever heard of FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME? Google those keywords. One of my oldest and dearest friends is a victim of his mother's drinking 1/5 of booze a day wile he was in her womb. He's had a tough life and, at age 50, finally collecting SS disability because behavior difficulties made it hard for him to hold a job. Instead of clamoring for a rash of new criminal laws to further exacerbate overburdened dockets and jail overcrowding, how about an aggressive PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN? Cigarette smokers have been shrinking in number NOT because of threats of arrest/jail but rather EDUCATION and OUTREACH to let people know the HEALTH CONSEQUENCES. NO NEW CRIMINAL LAWS! EDUCATE! EDUCATE! EDUCATE! Seems to be working against tobacco.
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