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Sunday July 5, 2009

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Baby in coma after ecstasy

Posted by: Ben Wise | 6 January, 2009 - 9:05 AM

Victorian parents holidaying in Cairns have been charged after allegedly feeding their two-month-old daughter ecstasy.

At two months old, the girl is not capable of lifting anything or swallowing properly – leading Nick McCallum to say the ‘pill must have been forced down her throat’.

The baby is now in an induced coma with doctors unable to tell at this stage how much permament damage has been done to her body as a result of taking the drug.

Paul Dillon, Drug and Alcohol Training Australia, spoke to 3AW about the ‘amazing story’.

“It will be interesting to hear the parents’ side because it doesn’t make any sense at all,” Dillon said.

When pressed for similar examples of minors having been subjected to hard drugs, Dillon could only come up with stories which surfaced from overseas.

“There have been cases in the UK where young people have inadvertently taken an ecstasy tablet they found in their parents home but they were significantly older than this person.”

“It is hard to believe this baby found it on the floor and taken it accidentally.”

In regard to the health risks associated with ecstasy, Dillon told McCallum that the ingredients of most ecstasy tablets are a mystery – heightening the dangers associated with ingesting them.

“Some ecstasy tablets have no active ingredients in them whatsoever. Some have caffeine and others paracetemol.”

“The drug people want  when they take them is MDMA … which puts great strain on the heart.”

Dillon believes whatever the result of the court case involving the parents, the story should act as a warning for adult drug-takers across the country.

“These sorts of stories bring home the problems with illicit drugs and particularly drug-using parents. Having drugs at home are a risk to yourself they can cause harm when use them intentionally for the purpose they have been bought for but when you have young people around who are falling around, handling everything there is the potential for a far greater tragedy.”

“When you talk about these sorts of stories you are usually talking about a whole range of social problems that exist, not only the drug use. We have had cases of parents who are on methadone who take it home. When they have young people at their home – things can go wrong.”

Blog comments Your Say

  • This is disgusting!!!!! They should go to jail for this and both should be sterilized. They dont deserve to have children, what are they thinking????
    THEY ARE SCUM

    Amie Wednesday 7 January, 2009 - 9:48 AM

  • I think this is disgusting, there is no way a 2month old baby can lift any thing, the parents should receive any penalty thrown there way, its obvious what has happened. Bless the little girl.

    kristy-lee Tuesday 6 January, 2009 - 1:37 PM

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