‘Crack babies’ defy mother’s curse
The above story is great news because it informs us that there is almost no effect on the development of children whose mothers were addicted to cocaine during childbirth. This is big news party people. A generation of kids who were written off like an LL Cool J album are actually viable and productive adults. It turns out that cocaine was never really the problem.
The problem was, and still is poverty.
Coca – Cola!
read the article
2 or 3 cases of children born to crack addicts NOT fucking up doesn’t mean that crack baby syndrome doesn’t exist.
Always exceptions to the rule.
My homeless, schizophrenic cousin might disagree. Especially when he sees his completely ‘normal’ half brother & his ex-crackhead mom living a regular life.
It’s compelling, if nothing else.
“Crack Babies” versus “Haitians With AIDS”: who will win in the “health epidemic” hype showdown?
re: the War on Poverty– alright! Where do I go to surrender?
If your mom is carrying you in the womb, and she drinks one 16 oz budweiser ever day…….you might have health complications…….
if she ate KFC every day , you might have health complications….
if she smoked crack once a week while carrying you, the likelihood of you having health complications has to increase 100 times over the beer and processed chicken scenarios.
if a woman is on crack…..more than likely she’s not even eating properly or regularly…..etc,etc,etc,
I’m happy for the kids that make it through with no health problems…but I’d have to think the odds are against that.
==========
Get,
Slow down sonn, you must be reading too fast. The point is not whether or not cocaine use impairs children born from the mother, but the fact that damning these kids to a substandard life has been MORE damaging. Policy makers and the insurance and rug companies that lobby these legislators have convinced people these kids are ‘lost causes’ and therefore they are ultimately denied services like educational and psychiatric care.
The article is a reminder to me that we too often prosecute those because they are immersed in poverty and not because of anytging they did. Read the article again if you didn’t the first time and take your time to read between the lines.
get– I won’t speak for DP but of course, everything you say is correct; I even started to go in on good pre-natal care AND a good diet for kids before (we probably ate some bad stuff too but it’s scary what I see today) but said ahh…
fuck it– and then went out for beef pattie & coco bread!
I think what DP is alluding to, however, is that general fucked the fuckedupness because of poverty, poor education, etc. has been treated superficially while the “crack babies,” “Haitians with AIDS” and other “epidemics” blow up in the media, prolly because it contributes to marginalizing poor folks without really having to deal with, you know, CLASS.
just like rich folks get busted for drugs a WHOLE lot less than poor because they have, you know, ** prescriptions **.
@ DP– ah, there it is.
I’d still like to see stories on all those “Haitians With AIDS” from 20 years ago, presuming they didn’t get crushed in Port-Au-Prince recently.
Hopefully lots made it to BK and are doing well.
im doin coke right now
RAPPERS SNIFF!!
P!
LMAO!!
Cats are making valid arguments, & I think it boils down to environmental stability. If you don’t grow up around crack, chances are you’ll never spark it. Just as much as if you not impovershed, you most likely won’t be exposed to it regularly.
Ultimately though, perseverence & hardwork can help a person maintain. My mom grew up under some hella harsh conditions & never succumbed to the shit that got all 5 of her brothers & her sister. She was the only one to escape “the trap”. Not the drug trap either, the genocidal/suicidal trap that Black people fall into daily.
P is wild biz. I would’ve liked the article to have made a correlation between poverty and the falling down of some of the children that didn’t make it. I’m SURE that environment and a healthy upbringing are determining factors in a child whose mother was on the slopes, either making it or not. What was the ethnic breakdown of the children researched for the piece? I’m interested to know that. A positive story, all the same, however.
Yo grands…that not really true, I have a few relatives that grew up on the other side (of the hood), went to catholic schools and were considered GOOD KIDS. At least three of them, have been through rehab. and one of em is still fighting the battle…..
Me, I was labeled a problem child early on because I lived in BK and ran in the street. I’ve never been to rehab or had an addiction, unless you count weed. I don’t even drink much anymore, only on rare occasions or If I’m in a club or something.
All it takes to get addicted is weakness and accessibility. I know kids from ‘Good families, in Good Neighborhoods’ get addicted simply because some one at a party offered it to them….
I think it reinforces the fact that some people can be rehabilitated and change. Yeah those kids were born with a disease but does that preclude them from going on to live a natural life. Some will…some wont….
Lion-
I feel that. I’m LIVING proof that rehabilitation can change you. I grew up in. A “good” home, both parents, no (real) trouble growing up, moved out & boom. Full blown alcoholic, hospitalization & rehab, all that. Within inches of death’s door, literally. 2 years & some change sober, so you do have a point. Although, I would never equate crack & alcohol, although there’s more similarities than people realize.
^^^
That’s why I used my moms as an example of the choices we make. Some can pull up by the boot straps, regardless of their surroundings. I guess in essence, whatever may have skipped over my mom landed on her first born, in a sense.
My cousin, her nephew, had all the means to his meds, therapy, all that. He was even going with the program for years. Even institutionalized once for having a meltdown. All this supposedly due to being a “crack baby.” Thing is, when he got old enough to make the decision to refuse help, my man slid downhill fast!
I can’t place blame on any one thing, because dude had/has a hard ass life, but I’m sure poverty, environment & drugs didn’t foster too much positivity in the long run.
And the truth shall set you free.
I read the article again.
arrived at the same conclusion.
they’re calling out the “epidemic hysteria” like Willis said of crack era predictions….. and using a flimsier argument than the ones they are calling out.
ask ANYBODY who works in the public school system or in social services the past 10 years about when the crack generation of children came of age.
and Dals, the lobby groups started talking about crack era kids and making predictions to get MORE funding to “treat” these kids. either from prisons or from social services. people fucking up = FOOD to big business. they lobby the government to give them a slice of the money that’s going to warehouse, treat, imprison, or drug the children that result from people fucking up. It’s a great hustle..pay off some university “researcher” to do a study..about how,who,what,when,where people are fucking up………..make a prediction on what will/can happen if X,Y,Z doesn’t happen. And then ask for money for x,y,z.
You don’t have to show any progress or results because ,hey…people are fucked up.
How I see it, rich kids, politicians, doctors and them white collar people do way more blow than the hoods. The hoods’ usage and effects are media scrutinized, the white collar usage gets swept under the rug.
$yk,
white dude I went to school with, roomed with….was an ex-heroin user….in high school
and I’m almost certain he’d been arrested for possession before
his parents had money…. got him cleaned up..went to rehab and he went on with his life….
I’d bet money that the guy he used to cop from is sitting in jail RIGHT now
^ exactly.