Cocaine babies

The standard urine immunoassay for detection of cocaine (23a) abuse during the gestation period of newborn babies was frequently found to yield negative results in cases where positive results were shown by extraction of meconium with a solvent, followed by HPLC. The drug and metabolites such as norcocaine (23b) and cocaethyline (23c) were detected140. See Section IV.C for an alternative analysis of cocaine. 

Determining the degree of organization is important in formulating policy. Despite the claim that there may be as many as 400 baby cartels operating in Colombia today, they are clearly not all of the same importance. If all were equal, each would be responsible for moving just 1.25 mt of cocaine every year, but individual seizures are made that are more than ten times that... 

We are also well aware of the addiction of newborns to heroin if their mothers were took the drug during pregnancy. So-called "cocaine babies" are restlessness, nervous and irritable. Fetal nicotine effects can be seen in low birth weight neonates. We are still not sure about the teratogenicity of heroin and cocaine. The latter can cause abortion and so could very well be teratogenic. 

Before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, makers of patent medicines were not required to label the ingredients of their products. Treatments for babies colic, women s disorders, and almost any imaginable ailment were marketed to users who had no way of knowing their ingredients or the proportions of opium, cocaine, alcohol, or other drugs in those medicines. At best, many of these concoctions were worthless as medical treatments at worst, they were addictive and even deadly. 

The hazards of cocaine specific for pregnant women include premature rupture of placental membranes, spontaneous abortion, abnormal labor, and several general medical risks (e.g., hypertension). Their babies typically have growth retardation with consequent lowered birthweight. Cocaine use is also related to sudden infant death syndrome, characterized by abnormal respiratory control, particularly during sleep. 

In the USA 100 000 crack cocaine babies are born each year, and an increasing number of anomalies is being linked to maternal cocaine abuse (252, 253). However, it is unclear by what mechanism cocaine affects the fetus. Interruption of the intrauterine blood supply, with subsequent destruction of fetal structures, may account for some of its effects (254). 

There are frequent reports of intrauterine growth retardation, neurobehavioral abnormalities, cerebral injury, and cardiac anomalies in coke babies (SEDA-14,15 SEDA-21,4 SEDA-21, 129) (255,256). Brain hemorrhages (257) and asymmetrical growth retardation (258) associated with maternal cocaine abuse have been discussed. 

McCann EM, Lewis K. Control of breathing in babies of narcotic- and cocaine-abusing mothers. Early Hum Dev 1991 27(3) 175-86. 

In 1993 in Adoption of Baby Boy L., the biological mother revoked her adoption consent. The court ordered hair testing by RIA and confirmation by gas chroma-tography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), to evaluate the biological mother s and father s cocaine use in order to determine the best interests of the child. 

The correlation between cocaine levels in the hair of mothers and their babies was investigated with 60 mother/baby pairs. All mothers had used crack cocaine during pregnancy. Hair that grew during the last trimester was used for this correlation. All mothers who reported cocaine use were found to have cocaine in their hair. For optimum correlation (r = 0.67) between drug levels in the hair of the mothers vs. that in the hair of their babies, it was necessary to exclude hair that was cosmetically treated from the comparison. 

In a study with Callahan et al., " the effectiveness of hair, urine, and meconium analyses for identifying cocaine use was compared and validated by self-reports. The correlation between drug levels in the hair of mothers and babies was also investigated, but this was done under conditions where treated hair was not excluded from the study. The study involved 59 mother-infant pairs. The women had given birth at a teaching hospital and were recruited for a prospective study comparing neurobehavioral outcome of cocaine-exposed infants with that of control infants. 

Use and abuse of cocaine have skyrocketed in recent years, provoking much public alarm. Sensational news stories about crack, with graphic descriptions of inner-city crack houses and impaired "crack babies" born to addicted mothers, led directly to escalations of the current war on drugs. For drug warriors crack is the new devil drug, so dangerous as to justify the most repressive measures. 

It quickly became hard for Mike to control himself. The more cocaine he had, the harder it was to focus on anything but using it. He found ways to dilute the supply he was selling to other kids so that he could keep more for himself. Sometimes he cut the coke with baby powder or condensed milk, but it didn t really matter what he used as long as it was white. 

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