THINK WHAT THEY'VE SOLD FOR $200

Women on drugs shouldn't have babies.

Anybody disagree with that?

Didn't think so. Now try this:

Women on drugs shouldn't make a decision they might regret for the
rest of their lives.

I'm guessing there's not a whole lot of argument about that
either.

And there's the trouble with the program run by one of this area's
newest residents. It goes after the right problem in the wrong way.

Barbara Harris and her family just moved to Harrisburg. She's been in
the news for a few years now. She runs a program called Children
Requiring a Caring Kommunity. The last word is misspelled on purpose
so the acronym comes out CRACK.

Here's the deal CRACK offers: If you're a junkie, Harris will give you
200 bucks. In exchange, you have to go through a procedure to make
sure you don't breed -- either sterilization, or some form of
long-term birth control such as injections that last three months.

So far, 990 women have taken her up on it (plus 24 men who got $200 to
have vasectomies). Those numbers come from Harris' Web site,
cashforbirthcontrol.com.

Do the math and that comes to more than $200,000 CRACK has given away
to make sure drug addicts don't have children.

For the folks who take the deal, CRACK's success rate is 100
percent.

I'd guess the chances that those folks take that $200 and buy more
drugs is also about 100 percent.

Misty Fulk, director of Mecklenburg County's CASCADE program, sums it
up:

"All the addict thinks is, `Money is a way for me to get drugs.'
There's no thought about the consequences. They can't see anything but
the money."

CASCADE is designed for mothers or soon-to-be mothers on drugs. About
200 women go through the program in a year, and about 30 babies are
born.

At CASCADE they try a little of everything -- outpatient care,
inpatient care that can last up to a year, sweet talk, tough talk and
lots of education.

Some women don't know about any birth control beyond a gas-station
condom. Some women don't even know how to play with their kids.

Most of the women who come in don't need to be having
babies.

The staff doesn't tell any woman what to do, Fulk says. In some cases
they make it extra-clear that sterilization is an option.

But here's the other side of it: Once the drug haze clears off, some
of the women who make it through turn out to be fine parents.

And 97 percent of the babies born to women in CASCADE turn out
healthy.

No doubt Barbara Harris prevents some terrible things -- drug-addled
moms having drug-addled babies who won't ever catch up to the rest of
the world.

But she also prevents healthy babies being born to mothers who have
learned some hard lessons.

One of those lessons being, it's not worth it to give up a piece of
yourself.

Not even for 200 bucks.