Baby Left on Roof of Car While High Mother Drives 12 Miles

[crashhelmet]

The police arrest her boyfriend for driving while high. They drive her home and she gets into her car and drives off to a friend's house. She drives the 12 miles before realizing that she left her baby on the roof of the car.

Unfortunately, the baby didn't travel the same distance, but thankfully another driver noticed the baby in the middle of the road before anyone could run the baby over.

Link Here

I have no words to justly describe the disappointment and disgust I have towards the mother. All I can do is pray she learns her lesson, gets clean and sober, and has custody of her child restored by Child Protective Services.

What also irks me about this is the number of people defending marijuana use in the Facebook posts where I've seen this. It seems that when alcohol is involved in things like this, the Hulk has been unleashed. But when it's pot, the smokers still find ways to defend it.

"Alcohol is worse..."
"The marijuana has nothing to do with being an idiot parent."
""Green tobacco" isn't the issue. Low levels of intelligence is the problem."

[anakhouri]

Hopefully this will be the kick in the nuts she needs to realize that the lifestyle she is living is NOT conducive to having a child. If she wants her kid back she will clean up and if she doesn't, hopefully he'll be placed with a resonsible family.

As for pot...normally I am not against smoked in the privacy of one's home, but it was definitely the causative factor in the near-accident and probably played a role in the forgotten baby incident. And it should NEVER be smoked around children.

[Greenday]

Posted this on my facebook wall. The second response I got:

Well this puts a bad spin on a certain subject.....they're just terrible kids who have obviously made a crap load of absolutely ridiculous decisions along the way. I wouldn't necessarily blame it on anything besides them. That child should not ever be allowed in their custody

There it is. Blaming it on being young and irresponsible, not the fact that these pot heads were too stoned out to remember a baby on the roof of the car or to drive at all.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm the child of a hippie family, and pot was smoked pretty much every day around me until I moved out at 19.

You can smoke daily and still be a responsible parent. Hell, you can get blitzed semi-regularly and still be a responsible parent. The only person in my immediate family who ever drove under the influence would have been my uncle, who wasa not-so-closest drunk.

These people were in no way being responsible with that child, and the being high was a symptom of that. I do have to wonder, however, how much of his impairment was due to the pot, or if he had spiked them, or if it was just the fact that he didn't have a license and probably never received any formal training. As an aside, I think taking driver's ed out of the schools was a mistake and potentially oppressive. Regardless, being high doesn't tend to cause a person to drive erratically but generally the opposite.

Also worth noting is that while the article mentions that she was arrested at the scene for being "drug-impaired," I note that they fail to mention precisely which drugs she was impaired by at the time, only that she specifically admits to having smoked.

My final thought is that it's actually not in the child's best interests to be kept from his mother; he's only 2 months old and he needs to be breast-fed to be given the best opportunity to grow up healthy, and unless foster care is going to wet-nurse him, he should be given supervised care by his mother, not separated entirely.

^-.-^

[Greenday]

he needs to be breast-fed to be given the best opportunity to grow up healthy

He also needs to not live in a cloud of pot smoke in his most crucial developmental stages to grow up healthy and to his full potential. That's if the parents don't kill him first.

[crashhelmet]

I'm the child of a hippie family, and pot was smoked pretty much every day around me until I moved out at 19.

You can smoke daily and still be a responsible parent. Hell, you can get blitzed semi-regularly and still be a responsible parent. The only person in my immediate family who ever drove under the influence would have been my uncle, who wasa not-so-closest drunk.

These people were in no way being responsible with that child, and the being high was a symptom of that. I do have to wonder, however, how much of his impairment was due to the pot, or if he had spiked them, or if it was just the fact that he didn't have a license and probably never received any formal training. As an aside, I think taking driver's ed out of the schools was a mistake and potentially oppressive. Regardless, being high doesn't tend to cause a person to drive erratically but generally the opposite.

Technically, alcohol doesn't make you drive erratically either. Both drugs can make you lethargic and make you pass out. if you d so at wheel, or start to, you tend to swerve. Problems with your eyes focusing because of the drugs can make you swerve as well.

Also worth noting is that while the article mentions that she was arrested at the scene for being "drug-impaired," I note that they fail to mention precisely which drugs she was impaired by at the time, only that she specifically admits to having smoked.

Some people are saying the initial reports say they had been drinking as well, but I haven't been able to find anything to back that up.

My final thought is that it's actually not in the child's best interests to be kept from his mother; he's only 2 months old and he needs to be breast-fed to be given the best opportunity to grow up healthy, and unless foster care is going to wet-nurse him, he should be given supervised care by his mother, not separated entirely.

^-.-^

Would you want her breastfeeding if she's still under the influence?

More than likely, the mother will be tested and, if she's clean, will be allowed periodic visitation to feed the child. They may even use a pump to store some for later feeding. If not, the child will most likely be fed formula rather than finding another wet nurse.

[anakhouri]

The article states that the father was actually unaware that he nearly caused an accident. My guess is that this is due to something more than being uneducated in driving. ..and forgive me, I've never smoked, but 3 or 4 joints seems like an awful lot whether they are spiked or not.

[Andara Bledin]

Honestly, a responsible parent can still be a pot-head. Pot can inhibit short-term to long-term memory and disrupt some short-term memory, so it makes studying and learning more difficult. Kids that are breastfeeding don't have any short-term to long-term memory to speak of, as that kicks in closer to the 1-year mark.

Note, I'm not condoning such behavior; I'm merely pointing out that it's not the big deal that most people try to make of it. But it's still totally stupid to get high and then think you can drive safely; hell, most people can't even drive safely while sober, so anything that impairs you is an automatic failure.

Also, I'm fairly certain that it's not possible to pass out from smoking in and of itself. But I know from friends who smoke that smoking and drinking together notably multiplies the effects of both, so if that is the case, that makes it way more dangerous for them to have been behind the wheel.

It doesn't surprise me that the media is playing up the pot angle and mostly-ignoring or completely omitting the alcohol angle. This is fairly common. I can't tell you the number of headlines I've read that scream about people smoking and causing carnage and then the heart of the article goes, "Oh, yeah, and they were drinking, too, but we're going to try to ignore that 'cause drinking's cool."

^-.-^

[crashhelmet]

Also, I'm fairly certain that it's not possible to pass out from smoking in and of itself.
^-.-^

I can tell you from many personal experiences that it can and will make you pass out. It can and will make you black out. It can and will make you do extremely stupid things like try to break into your neighbor's apt because you think it's yours and you locked yourself out.

Just like alcohol, there are different grades. Different strains, qualities, and intoxication rates.

[HYHYBT]

Regardless, being high doesn't tend to cause a person to drive erratically but generally the opposite.

Would you mind elaborating on that point, please?

My final thought is that it's actually not in the child's best interests to be kept from his mother; he's only 2 months old and he needs to be breast-fed to be given the best opportunity to grow up healthy, and unless foster care is going to wet-nurse him, he should be given supervised care by his mother, not separated entirely.

Formula isn't perfect, but it works well enough, and is certainly healthier than falling off a speeding car. Though, as I said in another thread, that's a mistake that would be all too easy to make without the aid of drugs.

Plus the whole pot-in-the-milk angle.

[Andara Bledin]

Just like alcohol, there are different grades. Different strains, qualities, and intoxication rates.

I strongly suspect that the things you mention have a lot more to do with contaminants and "add ins" than anything else.

^-.-^

[Greenday]

Regardless, being high doesn't tend to cause a person to drive erratically but generally the opposite.

This is blatantly false. I know pot smokers who claim it makes them focus more but their sense of reality tends to be pretty warped when they are high.

[fireheart17]

Re the breastfeeding, maybe the mother couldn't produce milk full stop, I've known of people who have been wanting to breastfeed their kids, but something goes wrong and the milk doesn't come in properly. Also, aren't most drugs passed on through breastmilk anyway including pot?

[bex1218]

I don't mind the occasional pot smoking parents (I was raised by them), but driving while under the influence with anything thats more altering than cigarettes is irresponsible. Add a story like this in the mix is way worse. Fine, do it at home, just don't put a kid at risk.

[telecom_goddess]

I'm sorry but the pot heads should not have their kids if they can't stop smoking pot for fuck's sake. Smoking pot and caring for a baby do NOT MIX. If pot is so freakin' important then give up the kids and go smoke your brains out.

I have no respect for pot smokers who can't get their shit together (and most of them don't).