Word: crackly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even after they give birth to drug-impaired children, many mothers go right on smoking crack. Melinda East, a former crack addict now in treatment in Long Beach, Calif., supported her habit as an often barefoot street prostitute. Her first baby was born with "the shakes," she says, but that did not turn her away from crack. She remembers selling milk and Pampers back to the grocery store for drug money...
Local governments often take crack kids away from still addicted mothers, but that does not guarantee stability for troubled children. Charlie, a five- year-old Los Angeles-area boy with severe behavioral problems, went through three foster homes before an elderly couple became his guardians. He seems to be making progress, but his prospects appear limited. He sometimes erupts into frenzied episodes of thrashing about, pulling his hair, biting and banging his head against a wall...
While poor, black ghetto children have attracted the most attention, they are far from being the only members of the crack generation. Cocaine abuse is common among members of the white upper and middle classes, but it is hidden better. Their babies are usually born at private hospitals that rarely ask mothers about drug use or screen them and their children for illegal chemicals. A 1989 Florida study found similar rates of drug use among pregnant white and black women of equal socioeconomic status, but only 1% of white abusers were reported to authorities, compared with nearly 11% of blacks...
Billie, the kindergartner, is a white child whose mother was addicted to crack, among other drugs. Soon after birth, Billie was whisked away from her and given to wealthy adoptive parents. Growing up in a stable environment, however, has not prevented him from being kicked out of four preschools for disorganized, rowdy behavior. Only when he started at this new school, where his teachers are trained to handle drug-exposed children, did he begin to calm down...
...crack kids are not the first children to be devastated by drugs while their mothers were pregnant. For many years, the unborn have been exposed to opiates, barbiturates, inhaled cocaine and a panoply of other drugs. And fetal alcohol syndrome, brought on by drinking during pregnancy, is believed to be a leading cause of mental retardation in the young...