On September 10, 2014 my nephew, precious child was born severely addicted to methadone. At the insistence of my brothers girlfriend, a forty year old drug addict, she had to have it while pregnant. It was told to her that at a dosage of 30 mg per day, the baby would be relatively okay, with little suffering due to withdrawal. That was not enough for her. She increased her dose within four months to over 90mgs. Still complaining it was not enough. Sadly little Tony was born a month early, so addicted, that he could not be touched without having severe spasms and flinching. Touch was pain to him. What they do not tell you is that when she got her dosage in the morning, by afternoon, it was wearing off, and the baby was in withdrawal all day every day for five months. She also was taking illegally benzodiazapines, so that he was in withdrawal from them, and no one knew. Whilst he was in the NI CU, she visited around the clock afraid they would take him, as they charged her with abuse and neglect for taking this medication whilst pregnant even though she got it legally paid for by medicaid, who even provides taxi transports for all methadone addicts back and forth to the clinic at the expense of the tax payer. I am so angry it is killing me. This is the state of NY for you though, and a mother who was more concerned with her own comfort. Four months later, this baby is still getting a morphine fix in every bottle he gets. Which means that instead of likening his bottle to love and comfort, he will now liken it to a drug fix. Instead of getting comfort from a loving parent, he only gets it in that bottle and fusses until he gets it. I share this story only because I feel that legal dispensing of methadone long term should be a crime. I support all your hard efforts to get changes made and ask for prayer for our little guy who still is in foster care as they cannot release him to the mother whilst she is on methadone and he on morphine lest she make a mistake that could cost him his life. She is nodding out at all visits with him, his first Christmas was in foster care.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 12:22:53 +0000