Oops. It is really grow-ops, as in grow operations, not grow-ups. And a quick search of my local papers led me to find out this problem is really pretty prevalent. In B.C., they have actually fed a bear dog food to guard a grow-op, which, in case you were considering that, is a bad idea because now the bear is not afraid of humans. About 300 grow ops were shut down in the GTA last year.
In any case, the day after I posted about our house inspection, I heard a summary of this story on CBC Radio 2 as I woke up:
TORONTO - Children living in grow-op homes are healthier living with their parents rather than being placed into foster homes, a study shows.
The study — published in The Journal of Pediatrics — found the majority of children removed from drug-producing homes after their parents were charged, were healthy, drug free and attended school.
Their health problems were fewer than those in the general Canadian population, the study reported.
The study examined 75 York Region children with an average age of 6 1/2-years-old.
About 80% of the homes were marijuana-growing operations or homes where large quantities of drugs were found, while the remaining homes were engaged in cocaine or amphetamine production or had multiple drugs — including marijuana, cocaine, MDMA or heroin — being produced or stored.
Two out of 75 children did better living in foster homes, while 73 of the children studied did better staying with their parents.
“We concluded kids do very well living with their parents. When kids were separated from their parents for a short of long term, we found the kids became depressed, confused and worried and they did not do well in school,” co-author Dr. Gideon Koren, senior scientist and director of the Hospital for Sick Children’s Motherisk program, said.
Koren said legal reasons or other safety issues may require the child to be removed from the physical location drug production, but there is no medical justification to automatically separate kids from their parents.
“Each case needs to be evaluated individually, case by case, and children should not be separated automatically from the parents,” Koren said.
He said the two children who were not medically well was because their parents were producing crystal meth.
Read the rest of the article at the Toronto Sun. My favorite part of this article is where they point out there may be other reasons to remove the children from an illegal drug operation, but otherwise it would be OK to leave them in the middle of a pot farm.
And here's a picture of a grow op. I would link but I think copyright issues would get in the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment