A couple from Washington state is facing various charges after the police discovered their children were drugged with heroin as "feel good medicine." The three children were found at their home littered with rat droppings and drug needles.
The parents, Ashlee Hutt and Mac Leroy McIver, are now charged with unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a person under 18, as well as child endangerment and child assault, following their arraignment at the Pierce County Superior Court in September.
Hutt and McIver have pleaded not guilty and may post a $100,000 bail each. Both parents admitted they were using heroin, but McIver maintains that the babysitter was probably the one who administered drugs to the three children. The parents are due for a trial in December and February, with each of them facing the possibility of spending a long time in jail.
The siblings are now in protective custody, in a foster home where they are said to be doing fine, according to Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
In November 2015, officials from the Child Protective Services found the three children, aged 2, 4 and 6 years old, living in squalor.
"The kids lived in deplorable conditions. It wasn't a good living situation even without the issue of heroin," Troyer recounted.
Heroin was found in the bedroom of their house. The 2-year-old had bruises, which court documents revealed were the result of drug injections.
The 6-year-old also told social workers that he was choked by McIver, and that the little boy and his younger sisters were reportedly given a "feel good medicine." The child further described that the medicine was a white powder mixed with water and was injected.
However, of the three children, the only one to have tested positive for heroin was the 2-year-old. The 4-year-old girl also had a very low quantity in her blood, but the tests were inconclusive. The eldest sibling tested negative.
These children are not the first to have been drugged at a very early age. Opioid poisoning has gradually increased during the years, and it has more than doubled in the past 16 years.
Based on a Reuters report, every 19 minutes, a baby in the U.S. is born an opioid addict. Some 110 cases were identified as early as 2010. The children were born to mothers who were addicts themselves during their pregnancies and, in most of the cases, the children died. However, through education and better social services, these cases could have all been prevented, according to the same source.
