Are there any politicians, particularly on a national level, whove expressed an interest in the problem?
VACHSS: No, not to me. There are plenty of organizations that live on grants and are constantly giving politicians awards. But I don’t see the evidence of any such effort. We have a war on drugs that is universally described as ludicrous and a failure, and yet nobody begrudges multibillion-dollar injections into it. Child protection services are the least trained, least paid, least respected professionals out there. CI: You must see the effects of drugs every minute of your day, and the effect from generation to generation of drug users. Cocaine-addicted babies are news now, for example, and I know you’ve had cases involving addicted mothers. Recently you had a case in which you got custody of the fetus of a drug-addicted mother. VACHSS: Yes. That case is just over, by the way; the child has been freed for adoption. You must understand, though, that, unlike the way it was reported, that case wasn’t about cocaine addiction. The fact that the child was born with a positive toxology for c
