Secondhand Drug Addiction

It's a wee bit more complicated than just talking about the chemical effects have on the body. There's no reason to believe there's any lingering long term effect from meth itself. A few days and it's gone for good. The long term damages come from secondary effects, like lack of nutrition, tooth decay, persistent untreated infections and venerial diseases they pick up from touching stuff and themselves in an environment where these run rampant. It's unlikely that the meth in the air simply floats into the kids, and will do so on a regular basis. It's far more likely that they take it themselves. Meth can be taken orally, and a little kid only needs some dust on a finger to have a massive effect.

And then there's all the emotional baggage. These kids are often the children of addicts who can barely take care of themselves, let alone a kid. So the kids become abused and mistreated. They often have abandonment issues, and often chose destructive relationship forms later in life. This damage is probably, by far the worst. This can lead them to turn to drugs, and perpetuate the cycle.

And then there's the genetic thing. There's reason to believe that conditions like ADHD for instance, that often give rise to addiction, is heriditary. So chances are good that the kid will always have these mental "afflictions" and pick the same substance abuse tactics to deal with them, for purely brain-chemistry reasons. This is often erroneously linked back to upbringing, as if this brain chemistry could have been avoided simply by having them removed from the addictive environment.

It's a very complicated issue.

Mine is no professional opinion, but I've been closely associated with children whose parents freely used drugs. Some of my family have done a lot of fostering.

A lot of problems with these kids come from the mother using drugs while she's carrying the child. Many of these kids are born with learning disabilities. Most are nervous and edgy. Their movements are often jerky. They often have tremendous behavior problems and they either refuse or cannot learn from discipline.

If the problems are really severe with parents and drugs, often the kid is not fed. One I know of would eat constantly, even taking food scraps out of the trash can even though he'd just been fed. Social workers said it was because he'd come so close to starving. He did this for the entire time I had contact with him, probably 3 or 4 years. He was around 7 months old when I first got to know him, a precious little brown-eyed guy who had the jerky movements I associate with the mother and drug use. He was really sweet natured though, where most of the kids I had experience with were not. More often, they'd have a belligerent, hateful attitude. I've seen some of them grow up. It does not get better with the passage of time for most of them.

In another case of sisters, where they'd been starved, they'd steal dog and cat food out of the bowl and hide it even though they were getting food at the time. The were afraid to trust their next meal would be there for them, so the older of two made provisions. The sad part is that this child was around three. The sister she hid food for was one. It's a pitiful sight to see pet food stowed away in the toy box or in the pockets of clothes.

One little one would say she'd have food "when the drug man come."
Evidently it was a drug man with a heart if such a being exists, because he brought the kids something to eat when he brought mama her fix and they learned to depend on it.

I don't know what kinds of drugs these parents were taking, and I don't know if it had anything to do with meth. I do know that cases which were more severe seemed to involve kids whose mom and dad both messed with drugs.

Woops! Forgot. The child of an addicted mother will be born addicted and will have to go through withdrawal.

Keyboard Hound said:

Woops! Forgot. The child of an addicted mother will be born addicted and will have to go through withdrawal.

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Not all the time. For example my cousin. He was not born addicted but he hasn't got a good liver and other things like that due to his mother's heroin problem. That is just a personal anecdote like your comment but it is a different take on it.

It's very complex and not black and white. It does get better if they are given love and understanding, not all of them are hateful/resentful or have a belligerent attitude. Hoping the adoptive/foster parents get good councilling on the matters. I've seen all to many people who adopt or foster expecting the kids to be angels or wanting to mould the child into the perfect child, then are some how startled and moan when - hey these kids have issues, and may not be easy to get on with the first few years, as the kids try to adjust to the new environment and new people they are to live with. It takes awhile for some to realise that these people won't hurt them.

Heroin is risky. I'd say. It does affect the childs growth especially if they are deprived in the first few years.

Jodotha said:

I'm not well versed in street drugs, but I thought meth was a very addictive drug. Wouldn't there be withdrawal symptoms, even if it were accidentally ingested as you state?

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You need to separate mental and physical addiction. The Wikipedia articles are quite good I think. Meth isn't particularly physically addictive. Not compared to cocaine or heroine. After a few days it's gone from the body and the "normal" brain chemstry has reasserted itself. The main addiction for meth lies more in the fact that it makes users very euphoric and therefore keep comming back to it even after it's long gone from their systems.

A huge problem with all amphetamines is that people on them eat very badly, if at all. All those chemicals in the head like serotonin and dopamine are manufactured from amino-acids in the food that we eat. If you don't eat for a couple of days, then quit the amphetamine, you'll feel awful partly from the fact that you hadn't eaten. This isn't a direct effect of the meth. If a meth user is conscienscious about their eating habits (this is very difficult) the withdrawal can be quite maneagable, and post-meth anxiety is much less.

Meth smells (and tastes) quite strongly so a kid will probably be able to avoid eating it if they wanted to. But just like anybody they might enjoy how it makes them feel, and therefore use it consciously. After coke and speed has been snorted there's usually quite a lot stuck on mirrors and table tops that can be licked with quite a large effect.

Jodotha said:

Also, I'm not just asking about meth (to clarify). What are other drugs that could be accidentally taken if a small child were allowed to roam freely in a home frequented by many users of many different substances? Any ideas or effects you can think of will be helpful.

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Alcohol, coke, pills.... there's quite a few. Acid and exstacy might also be available, but it's usually not the drugs of choice for down and out druggies. Heroin taken oraly will cause the kid to vomit and I don't think they could get enough to be effected. But you'd need a doctor to answer that. Hash or weed will also cause them to vommit, but they will most likely get enough to become high. The long term damages of alcohol on a young childs brain should not to taken lightly. They can, and most likely are, the drug that does the worst long term damage.

Jodotha said:

First, thanks all for your input and help! Much appreciated.




I've read about crackbabies, but there are so many other substances out there. In your observation, was the jerkiness and edginess a behavioral thing, or a physical instability?

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I really think it's more than just a behavioral thing. One of the children exhibiting it was the little brown-eyed child who had been almost starved. He was a really sweet child with none of what I would call behavioral problems. Some of the other kids who did have behavioral problems showed the same jerkiness.