Maralyn Beck on How New Mexico’s Drug Crisis Is Creating a Child Welfare Crisis

In Bernalillo County, New Mexico, 68 children under the age of one overdosed on fentanyl in 2022 alone. How did this happen? And how can we fix it?

In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Maralyn Beck, founder and executive director of the New Mexico Child First Network. Maralyn explains how New Mexico’s “public health approach” to babies born substance-exposed is leading more children to be left in dangerous home environments with no support or accountability. 

Under the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, the federal government made states responsible for implementing ‘plans of care’ for mothers and children who test positive for drugs at birth. New Mexico took a non-punitive public health approach: A 2019 law that barred medical professionals from referring families to Child Protective Services (CPS) solely because of parental drug use or infant drug exposure.

Maralyn tells the story of a nurse whose report was ignored by CPS after a baby’s parents were caught smoking fentanyl twice in the hospital. To address this crisis, Maralyn advocates universal screening of infants for substance exposure. Drug use makes parenting harder, and now is the time for policymakers to provide parents with a path out of addiction and into family stability.

Resources:

• Parenting While High | Naomi Schaefer Riley | City Journal
• Child Welfare’s Ideological Enforcer | Naomi Schaefer Riley | City Journal

Show Notes:

• 03:50 | A failing public health approach to CARA
• 10:08 | Estimating the number of newborns in New Mexico born drug exposed
• 11:01 | Child Protective Services ignoring reports from hospitals
• 15:00 | Who is legally responsible for these drug-addicted infants?
• 16:07 | Comparing approaches to CARA

You can follow Are You Kidding Me? on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Ricochet, Stitcher, and all other major podcast platforms. All of our podcasts can be found on the AEI website. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review. You can also send us suggestions for guests or topics at [email protected].