I am continually amazed at lawmakers’ proud display of their complete and absolute absence of even the barest glimmerings of human intelligence. I have to assume that their parents still tie their shoes for them.
Idaho lawmakers are taking their drug war all the way back to the womb. There’s a proposal making its way through the Legislature that would make it a felony offense – punishable by up to five years in jail and a $50,000 penalty – for a pregnant woman to take certain drugs, among them marijuana, LSD and methamphetamine.
It didn’t take long for the Idaho State Journal to find the glaring problem with this:
Pediatricians rightly worry that women using any of the above drugs will not seek prenatal care for fear of becoming a felon.
One local doctor also says the best time to convince a woman to stop taking drugs is when she’s pregnant or has just given birth. Drive them underground and that opportunity may never present itself.
And what doctor wants to be the one calling the cops on patients? What if the doctor doesn’t call? Will the Legislature also send him to jail for conspiracy, or harboring a fugitive?
Perhaps we can rename State Senator Denton Darrington’s bill. I’d call it “The Discourage Pregnant Drug Addicts from Getting Medical Help, Take Babies From Their Mothers, and Soak the Taxpayers With Increased Prison and Welfare Costs Act.”
Think it would pass then?