BEHIND THE LINES war-torn nation' 'Refugees from a

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Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist Action, 3435 Army RATES: For one year (12 issues)—U.S. 2nd Class: $8, 1st Class: $12; Canada and Mexico 2nd Class: $12, 1st Class: $15; All other countries 2nd Class: $15, 1st Class: $30. (Canada money orders or checks should be in 2 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1989 The most tragic victims of this country's drug epidemic are children. They are victims twice over. Born in poverty to drug-addicted parents, they are then cruelly sacrificed to inadequate and misguided healthcare policies.

These children are often born with severe medical problems. In Closing date:

May 31, 1989 New York City, for example, one out of 61 babies is born with the HIV virus. About half of them will get AIDS-and probably die by the time they're three.

Recently, I discussed this issue with several health workers. They pointed out that the majority of women addicts are also single mothers. Their children's care is closely related to the mother's own treatment and rehabilitation.

Unfortunately, most low-cost drug programs require long waiting lists. And even then, women are often rebuffed by the programs that exist. Very few programs, for example, make provisions for childcare.

In fact, most residential clinics require a woman to give up her children in order to come in. But women are afraid that if they turn their kids over to the welfare department, they'll never get them back.

They have good reason for their fear, said Stacey Samek, a specialist at a San Francisco pediatric clinic. "If the mother continues to take dope," she told me, "her baby is taken away from her by the authorities. She is never given the chance to take care of her child."

The myth persists that these children will then be sent to "better homes." But the children of addicts, Samek pointed out, "usually aren't the pretty, white, blue-eyed babies that most middle-class families like to adopt. They may have diseases or birth defects because the mother was malnourished or didn't receive proper medical care.

"And so, the children are passed from foster home to foster home which ends up repeating the cycle of poor upbringing from their parents' generation to their own."

Treatment or punishment?

In general, women addicts seek treatment less often than men. One reason is the type of treatment available, which is often designed to confront, humiliate, and punish the addict. (This is in line with the Bush administration's "get tough"

EVENTS THIS SAN FRANCISCO "UPHEAVAL IN CHINA" lear: Nat Weinstein, national secretary, Socialist Action Friday, June 16, 8:00 p.m. 3435 Army St. #308 (415) 821-0458 LOS ANGELES THE FIGHT AGAINST APARTHEID TODAY" Acclaimed film:

Last Grave at Dimbaza lear: Carl Finamore, national committee, Socialist Action Friday, June 16, 7:00 p.m. Patriotic Hall 1816 S. Figueroa, 6th Fl. (213) 396-6945 policies-ship drug military bootcamps!)

Punitive measures, which are counterproductive for men, are doubly so for women. Women are more likely to have been battered by their "partners," or to be victims of rape, incest, and child abuse.

And women-especially mothers —carry an additional social stigma, which often accuses them of being prostitutes and child-abusers, even if they're not. They don't need more humiliation by the doctors, the police, and the welfare authorities.

Pam Kirby, a caseworker at San Francisco's Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, told me: "Women with children, more than any other group, refuse to admit that they're addicted to drugs. Instead, they'll say, 'Oh, I smoked it once or twice."

"They often feel guilty," she pointed out, "about what they did to their babies. And so, it's harder to get them into a program."

MONTH

BOSTON "CHINESE STUDENT SPEAKS OUT"

Hear: Pei Minxin, Chinese student political activist Friday, June 16, 7:30 p.m.

Cambridge YMCA Temple St., Cambridge (617) 497-0230 CHICAGO "DEFENDING ABORTION RIGHTS"

Hear: Cherie McDonald, Canadian leader/activist Alexei Folger, Boston Socialist Action Olga Vives, NOW leader turday, June 24, 7:00 p.n 656 W. Barry (312) 327-5752 An effective drug program must treat clients like human beings— not faceless "criminals." There is a need for free medical, dental, and nutritional care as part of the treatment. Education up to the university level should be availablealong with job-training and placement services, and 24 hour childcare facilities.

But the opposite course is being taken in cities around the country. Los Angeles has a three-month waiting list to enter its drug program; yet funding has been cut 20 percent since 1980.

The model drug "treatment," according to Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, is to boot drug users out of their apartments—like Chicago is doing in its "Operation Clean Sweep."

"Bang bang, shoot 'em up," is the government's answer to the drug epidemic. Mothers and their children, like refugees in a war-torn nation, must pay the price.

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CTION end women's rights