Crack babies

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. 

As can be seen, legalization, decriminalization, and harm reduction are not synonymous. The statements in the NDCS and the letter by Congressman Souder attempt to equate these concepts. By doing so, there is an attempt to dissuade people from engaging in a reasonable discussion about the variety of policy issues and strategies incotporated in the terms l ahzation, decriminalization, and harm reduction. You may have noticed that the 1999 NDCS attempts to associate harm reduction with totally unrelated, emotional issues such as crack babies. ... 

Although the term crack babies was widely used 5 to 10 years ago, there has never been a syndrome identified in which children exposed to crack or any other... 

The U. S. government should support early childhood programs for babies addicted to crack because most of these children are raised in homes lacking adequate stimulation. 

I headed to the shower to calm my nerves. Fat chance. The bathroom was like a House of Horrors. Can Soft Scrub residue get in your system via your feet What about the black mold dancing across our (plastic ) shower curtain And the roach bait behind the toilet The cat litter winked at me I recoiled. I brushed my teeth and almost cracked—was fluoride bad And what about my deodorant (aluminum), hydrocortisone cream (steroids), and just about every shampoo, lotion, and perfume on my shelf (all made with chemicals that have the potential to harm growing babies) Even my pedicure made me nervous, but I didn t dare risk acetone fumes to remove the poisonous polish. 

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). 

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. 

Zinc and castor oil cream was tested in a polystyrene jar using a four start lug finish to simplify removal of the closure (mother holding baby). Samples were stored at 4°C, 20°C, 30°C and 37°C. Jars cracked at the four stress points created by the four lug closure, first at 4°C then at the higher temperatures in ascending order of temperature (i.e. 6 weeks, 3 months, 7 months, 10 months). The subsequent use of an impact modified polystyrene with the return to a conventional continuous screw thread and screw cap ultimately provided a satisfactory pack. 

I see more pain in the cracked face of a doll than you see in your baby. Tm wise in pain and sin AIS, p. 26)... 

The traces of yellow stains over much of the exterior and some of the iimer parts of both connectors implied that they originated during their period of use (Fig. 10.9). They were probably urine stains from the baby because the connectors would have been in close proximity to his body, probably lying on his skin. The particles trapped in the sharp facets at the remnant of the gate were probably traces of faeces and coagulated blood. The fracture surfaces of the cracks were also contaminated both with the yellow stain and by particulate matter, so that contamination and crack formation were probably contemporaneous. 

It was also of some interest to observe from the numerous hospital failure reports that cracking was usually detected by nurses seeing fluid leaking from the deviees, so in many cases of reported failures, cracking must have linked the bore with the external world. Even the external cracks visible on the retained eonnectors were not spotted either by the baby s mother or the solicitor dealing with the ease when the action was first started, such is the small size of the deviee, and the difficulty of observing small hairline or even partly open cracks (Fig. 10.6). 

Hard cooked egg yolk may be fed to a baby. Use a fresh, uncracked egg. Heat in water until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Let the egg set in water for 20 minutes. Crack the shell and remove the yolk. Add warm milk and mash the yolk. Boiling an egg makes it tough. 

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