The article begins by addressing the narration of a girl named Hailey
Leclair. She began by mentioning that she was only about 12 years old when she
started to notice her mother's drug use.
Last
October, the Bangor Daily News in
Penobscot County, Maine, told Hailey's story, through diary-like entries
she'd written that reflected feelings of frustration, confusion and hurt as she
tried to navigate her mother's and stepfather's addictions.
The
effects of her family’s addiction included separation from her sibling,
beginning a new life with different guardians wondering why her mother chose to
use drugs over mothering her children. In addition to these difficulties, Hailey
was also forced to tough the usual strains of finishing middle school on her
own.
Hailey, a current sophomore at
Old Town High School, told the U.S. News that she has more trust issues due to incident.
"Parents are supposed to be the number 1 people there for you, and I kind
of felt back-stabbed because I had no clue what was going on and I was
completely oblivious for a while.”
Hailey's experience is indicative of how the U.S. opioid
epidemic has harmed people who are not even suffering from addiction. Moreover,
for an estimated 54.8 percent of Maine children who were removed by the state
from their homes in 2016, parental alcohol or other drug use was a contributing
factor for the removal. Nationwide, substance use increased as a factor for
removal from 18.5 percent of cases in 2000 to 35.3 percent in 2016.
As an effect of these incidents, the Department of Justice awarded
Penquis, a Bangor-based nonprofit organization, a three-year, $632,000 grant to
establish social services geared toward children situations similar to Hailey’s.
This shift in morals depicts the Antebellum Age of Reform. Similar
to this focus on the removal of drug use in America, the temperance movement emphasizes
the effect that narcotics have on family life.
I think it sucks that kids have to got through things like this. The people who bring them into this world need to care of them or find someone who will treat them the best. That’s on them not the children and it should never be their burden.
ReplyDeleteA child should'nt have to deal with this sort of issues, it harms them forever and could even lead to them becoming addicted too.
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad that this is going on right now, and kids are dealing with domestic, and drug abuse being used around them.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad to hear about situations like this because it is truly not the child's fault.They can't control their situation and have no one to really guide them through life. In the long run, the child could become addicted also. Even though it won't fix every problem,I am proud so see that things are being done so that we could reduce it.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a sad thing that is going on in the country for the families of those with addictions to opioids and I am pleased to see that strides are being made to help the children.
ReplyDeleteFiona Graybill