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Hospitals gave patients meds during childbirth, then reported them for illicit drug use (www.usatoday.com)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/nottheonion

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Amairani Salinas was 32 weeks pregnant with her fourth child in 2023 when doctors at a Texas hospital discovered that her baby no longer had a heartbeat. As they prepped her for an emergency cesarean section, they gave her midazolam, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed to keep patients calm. A day later, the grieving mother was cradling her stillborn daughter when a social worker stopped by her room to deliver another devastating blow: Salinas was being reported to child welfare authorities

What happened to Salinas and Villanueva are far from isolated incidents. Across the country, hospitals are dispensing medications to patients in labor, only to report them to child welfare authorities when they or their newborns test positive for those very same substances on subsequent drug tests, an investigation by The Marshall Project and Reveal has found.

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[–] spankmonkey 73 points 6 days ago (3 children)

was intended in part to help identify babies who might experience withdrawal symptoms

That was the stated reason to get public buy in. The real reason was the same as the rest of the war on drugs, to keep black people incarcerated so slavery can continue per the 14th amendment.

[–] Darrell_Winfield 23 points 6 days ago

Lol, yeah, that started reason doesn't hold up well. Your basic urine drug screen (UDS) will flag benzos (midazolam in this article), natural opiates (not fentanyl and those derivatives), cocaine, barbiturates, marijuana, amphetamines, and I think that's it. The only ones likely to cause fetal withdrawal are benzos and opiates. Works well enough for benzos, but withdrawals are pretty rare. The most common are opiates, but the most common opiates won't show up on the UDS. So why use it?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Citations Needed did an episode on the crack baby moral panic, but couldn't find it now.

Edit: I think it was this one but I'm not entirely sure:
Citations Needed: Episode 39: From Cradle to Courtroom: How The Media Stacks the Deck Against “Defendants”

Episode webpage: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/citationsneeded/CN39_20180606_live_court_watch_nyc.mp3

[–] spankmonkey 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, there was no crack baby epidiemic for starters...

[–] Chip_Rat 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Citations needed uses heavy sarcasm. Though I don't recall the episode, I'm 100% they are highlighting the fact that there was not.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They talked about that, how the article that started the panic had to be retracted, but it didn't mattered at that point

[–] spankmonkey 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

As tends to be the case with racist fearmongering.

[+] [email protected] -10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's silly. 99% of the time, a drug addict is not fit to be a parent. Depending on the drug, even breastfeeding the baby will cause it to OD. It's perfectly reasonable to get child services involved if the mother tests positive for illicit drugs.

Now, what's ridiculous is getting child services involved because a patient tested positive to a drug you gave them, unless there's other obvious signs of drug abuse.

[–] spankmonkey 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That’s silly. 99% of the time, a drug addict is not fit to be a parent.

Do you include functioning alcoholics in that group, or just people who use the 'bad' drugs?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes, I do.

[–] spankmonkey 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Your 99% of addicts stat is made up war on drugs bullshit by the way, and you clearly don't know what a functioning alcoholic is if you think they can't be parents.

For example some addicts are able to keep their shit together during work hours and evenings but use alcohol as a coping mechanism when their responsibilities are done. They are still addicts, but in their spare time.

A lot of other addicts are similar, addicted to pain meds or who use weed as a coping mechanism but outside of work and care hours.

[+] [email protected] -10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

When you have children, you don't have spare time.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

if you dont have a medical or biochemist degree (and probably even then if this is your take) i suggest you take your nonsense elsewhere because frankly its incorrect and it has caused untold problems by preventing adequate care from being administered for people's mental health. for example one doesnt need to look any further than psychedelics and depression caused by issues in the parasympathetic nervous system. most addicts are self medicating (often poorly and ineffectually) because of assholes like yourself limiting their and our ability to treat them effectively.

[–] spankmonkey 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I have a teenager, and while some days were pretty busy, there has always been some spare time before bed.