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Sheriff’s officials in Sidney, Ohio, want to prosecute moms of heroin babies.
They are asking state legislators to broaden the language of criminal charges for child endangering and corrupting another with drugs to allow authorities to do so.
Sheriff John Lenhart said he spoke Tuesday with State Rep. Jim Buchy, R-Greenville, about revisiting past discussions about tougher laws for pregnant women who use heroin.
“I asked him to look at this again, put a little teeth in this. The mere fact that a woman who is pregnant uses heroin, should be stiffer punishment than normal,” Lenhart said. “The reason I say that is we have no idea what these kids are going to be like in the future. To see what (babies) go through is terrible.”
Lenhart said the county juvenile-probate judge told him that 16 heroin addicted women in the county this year have given birth to affected children.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Atwood said he approached Lenhart to discuss possible charges after the birth of another child to a heroin addicted mother during the past week.
The child, he said, was being treated for withdrawal at Dayton Children’s Hospital.
Atwood said the concern is that the existing available charges address juveniles but do not refer specifically to the unborn child.
“It is vague in a case like this … though this is not what you call an uncommon case today,” he said. “We need to realize this is an epidemic that is not going to go away.”
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