Crack Babies: A Tale From the Drug Wars - Retro Report
-
0:05 - 0:07There was another warning
about cocaine today. -
0:07 - 0:10Crack now has spread through
almost every American city. -
0:10 - 0:16It is a problem in Houston, Philadelphia,
Kansas City, Tucson, and Sacramento. -
0:18 - 0:21In the 1980s, the media sounded the alarm
-
0:21 - 0:25that a new drug, crack cocaine,
was taking over American cities -
0:25 - 0:27and that it had an especially devastating
effect -
0:27 - 0:30on pregnant women and their newborns.
-
0:30 - 0:34A new study says that babies born to women
who use cocaine during pregnancy -
0:34 - 0:38are three times as likely to be born
with birth defects. -
0:38 - 0:40They tend to be, what we call jittery.
-
0:40 - 0:44There are very very high risk
for Cerebral Palsy... Mental retardation. -
0:44 - 0:48They are prone to hypertension, strokes,
and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. -
0:48 - 0:52These children were the most expensive
babies ever born in America. -
0:52 - 0:56are going to overwhelm every social
service delivery system -
0:56 - 0:59that they come in contact with
throughout the rest of their lives. -
0:59 - 1:02Drugs take away the dream from
every child's heart, -
1:02 - 1:04and replaces it with a nightmare.
-
1:04 - 1:06But were these infants really doomed?
-
1:06 - 1:10Nearly three decades later, what is
the true legacy of the crack baby era? -
1:11 - 1:18♪ (music) ♪
-
1:22 - 1:26In the early 1980s, Dr. Ira Chaznoff,
a young researcher -
1:26 - 1:29at North Western Memorial Hospital
in Chicago -
1:29 - 1:31decided to study what
he saw as a worrisome trend -
1:31 - 1:34among his pregnant patients,
who had used cocaine. -
1:35 - 1:39Women were coming in and their babies
were looking different when they were born -
1:39 - 1:42they had higher rates of pre-maturity.
-
1:42 - 1:46And, they had higher rates of newborn
seizures and other complications. -
1:47 - 1:52A lot of the babies exposed to the cocaine
are quite small. -
1:52 - 1:56We think that that's related to the use
of this drug during pregnancy. -
1:56 - 2:00We'd seen effects of alcohol and other
substances on children -
2:00 - 2:04so we were certainly open to the idea
that this was a problem. -
2:05 - 2:06Cocaine was an epidemic.
-
2:06 - 2:11I think that it was something
that the media -- -
2:11 - 2:14It became an exciting thing to talk about.
-
2:14 - 2:17What you got? What you need? What you got?
-
2:17 - 2:20We call our broadcast, "48 Hours
on Crack Street". -
2:23 - 2:28Soon after our paper was published, within
days we were getting calls from media -
2:28 - 2:29all over the country
-
2:29 - 2:32and started hearing the term
"crack babies". -
2:33 - 2:36Spotlight tonight, our investigative
series on cocaine kids. -
2:36 - 2:39Despite all the warnings a growing number
of babies are being born -
2:39 - 2:41already addicted to cocaine.
-
2:41 - 2:45As it got out into the world,
it became this phenomenon. -
2:46 - 2:50Twenty three babies were born
to the cocaine using women in this study. -
2:50 - 2:52Because the problem has appeared
so suddenly, -
2:52 - 2:55there are few reliable statistics.
-
2:55 - 2:59The number of so called cocaine babies,
is growing at an astonishing rate. -
3:00 - 3:03The number of babies born addicted
has risen more than 500%. -
3:03 - 3:06I had lots of people interviewing me.
-
3:06 - 3:09Dr. Ira Chaznoff, of Chicago's
North Western Memorial Hospital -
3:09 - 3:13runs the oldest program researching
cocaine and the newborn. -
3:13 - 3:18It appears that cocaine has just
as devastating effect on pregnancy, -
3:18 - 3:21and the new born, as heroin.
-
3:21 - 3:25Chaznoff told reporters that cocaine
exposure was causing some babies -
3:25 - 3:27to be born with brain damage.
-
3:27 - 3:31And that others were overwhelmed by even
simple eye contact with the mother. -
3:31 - 3:34These children are not normal
in the sense that -
3:34 - 3:38they are going to be able
to enter the classic school room -
3:38 - 3:42and function in large groups of children.
-
3:42 - 3:46Other researchers and doctors echo
Chaznoff's conclusions -
3:46 - 3:49and a host of seemingly recognizable
symptoms took hold. -
3:49 - 3:53One of the things that we see about
babies who have been exposed to cocaine -
3:53 - 3:55is they tend to be very tremulous
and shaky. -
3:55 - 3:57Very fine kinds of tremors.
-
3:58 - 4:01We look to see if we would find
the effects that were reported. -
4:01 - 4:04And we were saying,
"Well...we aren't seeing this." -
4:05 - 4:09As Chaznoff's star rose, Dr. Clair Kholes
was reaching a different -
4:09 - 4:12though equally startling conclusion
about crack babies -
4:12 - 4:15based on her study of infant behavior
at Emory University. -
4:15 - 4:19The effects didn't seem consistent
with the action of the drug itself. -
4:20 - 4:23Many of the children, who are
the so-called classic cocaine babies, -
4:23 - 4:25were premature babies.
-
4:25 - 4:30And the symptoms that were seen
on the videos, on television. -
4:30 - 4:34the tremoring arms and all of that,
that was prematurity. -
4:34 - 4:38You could have taken any premature baby
and gotten the same image. -
4:38 - 4:42I think that people got very focused
on cocaine is the cause of this -
4:42 - 4:45rather than thinking, substance abuse
is the cause of this, -
4:45 - 4:48maternal lifestyle is the cause of this,
-
4:48 - 4:50social issues are the cause of this.
-
4:50 - 4:53But Khole's findings didn't fit within
the narrative of what had become -
4:53 - 4:55a national scare.
-
4:55 - 4:58Cocaine.. Crack.
-
4:58 - 5:02If you use drugs while you are pregnant,
your baby can die. -
5:02 - 5:04There's a whole lot of people
-
5:04 - 5:07who feel that if you can just scare people
sufficiently about something -
5:09 - 5:12that that's better than actually telling
them the truth about something -
5:12 - 5:14because that'll prevent them
from doing bad things. -
5:14 - 5:15♪ (music playing) ♪
-
5:15 - 5:17(door crashing) Police!
-
5:18 - 5:21The American Agenda tonight
poses this question: -
5:21 - 5:24What would you do about pregnant women
who use drugs -
5:24 - 5:26and pass those drugs on to their babies?
-
5:26 - 5:31By the late 1980s, Chaznoff's findings
were being used to justify cases -
5:31 - 5:36charging pregnant cocaine users as child
abusers, drug dealers, and killers. -
5:37 - 5:39I was at first stunned.
-
5:39 - 5:43And then angry, that they would
distort the information. -
5:43 - 5:49That's when I started realizing how
a lot of this can be taken out of context -
5:49 - 5:52and used to bolster any kind of argument.
-
5:52 - 5:54People may have felt that
they were doing the right thing. -
5:54 - 5:58But I mean the idea that one
would prosecute a pregnant women -
5:58 - 6:04and use this kind of,
not very accurate research, -
6:04 - 6:06to do so is very disturbing.
-
6:06 - 6:07♪ (music playing) ♪
-
6:08 - 6:11As the prosecutions continued,
crack babies grew to toddlers. -
6:12 - 6:14No one knows how many there are,
-
6:14 - 6:16or even how to best identify them.
-
6:16 - 6:20But educators suspect that tens
of thousands of crack kids -
6:20 - 6:24are in kindergartens in inner cities
in suburbia, even in small town America. -
6:25 - 6:29It now threatens to create an entirely
new underclass of children, -
6:29 - 6:33unable to care for themselves,
of infants born to suffer. -
6:33 - 6:34♪ (music playing) ♪
-
6:34 - 6:37In the United States this year,
at least a hundred thousand crack babies -
6:37 - 6:38will be born.
-
6:38 - 6:42Today the government said it will cost
5 billion dollars a year -
6:42 - 6:43to care for such babies.
-
6:44 - 6:46And money doesn't begin
to tell the whole story. -
6:46 - 6:49I'm supposed to be a victim
of that crack era. -
6:50 - 6:55I was supposed to be disruptive,
mentally unstable. -
6:56 - 6:59I wasn't supposed to reach the point
where I am now. -
6:59 - 7:03The initial hypothesis was
that drug abuse -
7:03 - 7:06will lead to huge physical deformities,
-
7:06 - 7:09huge mental deformities in children.
-
7:10 - 7:15And, you know, in myself, I didn't see
any of those things. -
7:16 - 7:22So, it would be easy for me to believe
that, that science doesn't hold true. -
7:24 - 7:27Almost three decades since Chaznoff's
initial research, -
7:27 - 7:30which focused on just twenty three babies,
-
7:30 - 7:33long term studies have found only subtle
changes -
7:33 - 7:36in the brains of cocaine exposed
research subjects like Stone. -
7:36 - 7:40There is no particular evidence of
this social, emotional deficit. -
7:40 - 7:44You're not seeing really broad scale
severe developmental problems -
7:44 - 7:46as was predicted.
-
7:46 - 7:51The schools have not been overwhelmed
by the flood of cocaine exposed children. -
7:51 - 7:55In fact, Stone became the first in her
family to graduate from college. -
7:55 - 8:00In learning that I had been exposed,
I kinda told myself -
8:00 - 8:03I am not going to make this an issue.
-
8:03 - 8:09Whatever I have to do to get around
what the effects may be, I'll do that. -
8:09 - 8:12The paper was a very preliminary
kind of finding. -
8:12 - 8:16And it really shouldn't have been
generalized, to the extent it was. -
8:16 - 8:20Which I believe Dr. Chaznoff eventually
came to himself and said -
8:20 - 8:26that he felt that this didn't really
represent the whole of the situation. -
8:26 - 8:28Doctor let's go to you on this question.
-
8:28 - 8:30You've studied this, perhaps
one of the first people to study this. -
8:31 - 8:34How does cocaine use effect newborns?
-
8:34 - 8:37Well there's no questions that cocaine
use during pregnancy -
8:37 - 8:41has some real effects on the unborn,
and on the newborn child. -
8:41 - 8:44But, these effects are not devastating,
-
8:44 - 8:48and can be addressed through treatment
for the pregnant woman and for the child. -
8:49 - 8:51Over time, Chaznoff did distance himself
-
8:51 - 8:55from some of the extreme pronouncements
he was quoted as making in the early days. -
8:56 - 9:01I probably talked too much,
or gave long winded explanations. -
9:01 - 9:03Which were completely cut out.
-
9:03 - 9:07It was one of those feelings where
you just feel completely out of control. -
9:07 - 9:11But the hysteria that followed his initial
research had already taken its toll. -
9:12 - 9:16It wasn't even a natural
disaster or a war. -
9:16 - 9:18It was a drug that caused so much harm
-
9:18 - 9:22among my generation and my parent's
generation. -
9:22 - 9:25Certainly cocaine was contributing
to this problem, -
9:25 - 9:30but, they got very focused on it
as the only sole cause of it. -
9:30 - 9:33I think people still believe
the cocaine story, -
9:33 - 9:36but alcohol is much more
of a problem than cocaine. -
9:36 - 9:40Because there is much more alcohol used
and it has much more severe effects. -
9:41 - 9:45I think if you'd say something three times
out loud, people take it as fact. -
9:46 - 9:50And also, I think there are certain
ideas that people want to believe. -
9:50 - 9:52That really fit in with
cultural stereotypes. -
9:52 - 9:54It is hard to get rid of those.
-
9:54 - 9:58♪ (music playing) ♪
- Title:
- Crack Babies: A Tale From the Drug Wars - Retro Report
- Description:
-
Retro Report: In the 1980s, many government officials, scientists and journalists warned that the country would be plagued by a generation of "crack babies." They were wrong.
Read the story here: http://nyti.ms/166g5dg
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- Team:
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- Project:
- BATCH 2 (1.31.17)
- Duration:
- 10:10
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