‘Moral Panic’ Threat To Children Of Drug Addicts

Hundreds of children whose parents are drug addicts face the risk of being taken into care because of a “moral panic” over the issue, Scotland’s drug and alcohol tsar has warned.

Tom Wood, chairman of the Scottish Association of Drug and Alcohol Action Teams, warned that knee-jerk responses to the issue of protecting drug addicts’ children could do far more harm than good.

But his comments have been attacked by one of Scotland’s foremost experts on drugs misuse, Professor Neil McKeganey, who believes too few children of drug addicts are removed from their family homes.

Mr Wood spoke out after government ministers criticised social workers for failing to intervene in such cases.

The subject came under the spotlight following a series of high-profile cases, including the death of an East Lothian toddler after he drank methadone in his parents’ home.

Mr Wood and Prof McKeganey will have the chance to exchange views today when they take part in a discussion on the treatment of drug users staged by the Scottish Parliament’s health committee.

The First Minister, Jack McConnell, and the justice minister, Cathy Jamieson, said social workers should no longer assume home was the best place for children living under the shadow of drugs. Ministers also want to draw up tough behaviour contracts for parents addicted to drugs.

The case of the child’s death also led to Duncan McNeil, the Labour MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, to call for contraceptives to be put in addicts’ methadone.

Experts estimate that 60,000 children in Scotland are living with drug addicts. Latest figures show about 4,500 children in the country are with foster carers or in local authority homes. About 1,000 are under five and experts say “a significant proportion” of those will have been removed from their homes because their parents were abusing drugs and alcohol.

Mr Wood last week told a conference of more than 200 drug and alcohol experts at the parliament that the number of children living with drug addicted parents was likely to increase, but insisted the majority of those were in no danger.

Mr Wood said: “We have to accept that children can be reared safely within a home where drugs and alcohol are present.”

He added that local authorities had been very poor parents over the years. Later, he told The Scotsman that removing a child from their home should be “a last resort”. He said he was worried by bellicose statements from some senior people “that if you’re a heroin user you can’t look after children”. He added: “It’s not quite as simple as that.”

Mr Wood said: “There’s a sense of a moral panic. Taking hundreds of children from their homes cannot be the answer.

“There are thousands of people in this country who are using alcohol and drugs to harmful degrees who are bringing children up perfectly well. We have to be careful and considered so we don’t repeat past mistakes, when we were panicked into a macho strategy on drugs.

“Some people have reacted strongly with their hearts, not their minds. That’s understandable, but let’s make sure we make the situation better, not worse.”

However, Prof McKeganey, of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research in Glasgow, said: “Tom Wood seems to be saying that children are not necessarily harmed in drug-addicted households. My view is diametrically the opposite. Children are by definition being harmed. The question is how much of that harm is acceptable. Parental drug addiction is incompatible with providing a safe, nurturing environment.”

He added: “People may think the state should never do it, but services will have to come to terms with removing children.

“Anything short of that may leave children unsupported.

“Nobody in their right mind would suggest that children should always be taken into care, but lives are being lost and services will have to do more than they are currently comfortable with.”

An Executive spokeswoman said: “The welfare and safety of children are paramount and ministers are not prepared that their lives are to be damaged by their parents’ drug or alcohol misuse.”