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kinkbound -> RE: Barber shop raided (11/11/2010 6:20:52 PM)
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"While a federal employee would fail a drug test if they exceed a threshold of 2,000 nanograms/mL of opiate metabolites, a patient at Jameson Hospital would fail if they exceed a threshold of just 300 nanograms/mL -- or just 100 nanograms/mL for morphine. At such low thresholds, there’s a good chance other parents will have to suffer -- and likely have already suffered -- the pain of having their child taken away from them based on nothing more than their choice of breakfast food.
Indeed, "Jameson Hospital's policy of drug-testing all obstetrical patients for opiates at cut-off levels so low that they are triggered by the mere consumption of a poppy seed bagel, and then reporting these unreliable results to LCCYS is plainly misguided,” says Patricia Dodge, one of the attorneys representing Mort and Rodriguez.
But “misguided” is probably an understatement. As detailed in the ACLU’s lawsuit, the state “is removing newborns without any reasonable suspicion that they have been abused or are in imminent danger of abuse, in violation of parents' fundamental constitutional rights, and Jameson is aiding and abetting that constitutional violation by carrying out a drug-testing regime, the primary purpose of which is to further the goals of LCCYS, not provide medical care to patients.”
Keep in mind: what happened to Mort and Rodriguez isn't a mere fluke -- it's the direct result of an established hospital policy in dire need of reform. In fact, the lawsuit states that one caseworker admitted LCCYS made a mistake by removing Mort's daughter from her home, explaining that they had experienced problems with Jameson Hospital in the past. And if its drug-testing policy doesn't change, rest assured more parents will have their children seized by the state over nothing more than a poppy seed.
To prevent future incidents, Jameson Hospital needs to start treating its mothers-to-be like patients, not prospective criminals. And it can start by raising its "positive" drug-testing threshold to the level used for federal workers. But it shouldn't stop there. Unless there are signs of abuse or actual evidence a child is in danger of abuse, hospital staff should not report parents to child services over just one potentially faulty test result, especially when the hospital knows that will result in the state taking the child away without any further investigation."
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