ARIZONA LACKS LAW TO PROTECT CRACK BABIES, EXPERTS SAY AFTER INFANT'S DEATH

Lawmakers on Thursday demanded to know why a baby born with cocaine in her
system was sent home from a hospital with her mother, dying a week later
from a steady stream of secondhand crack cocaine smoke that ravaged her
intestines.

The short, tortured life of Anndreah Robertson seems to scream of abuse and
neglect.

But the fact is that babies such as Anndreah, born with drugs in their
systems, are sent home almost daily in Arizona and other states that don't
have laws that make prenatal substance abuse a crime.

"The mere fact that a parent uses drugs doesn't, in Arizona, constitute
neglect," said John Krall, policy analyst for the Abandoned Infants
Assistance Resource Center in Berkeley, Calif. "And the only reason that
any child can be removed is for abuse or neglect."

On Wednesday, after a nine-month investigation, the infant's mother,
Demitres Robertson, 23, was charged with first-degree murder and child
abuse. The baby's grandmother and primary caretaker, Lillian Ann Butler,
44, was charged with two counts of child abuse.

The day after charges were filed, top administrators of the state Division
of Children, Youth and Families, which oversees Child Protective Services,
promised lawmakers an independent investigation into the way the agency
handled the case.

CPS officials acknowledge they knew three weeks before Anndreah's Oct. 30
birth that crack cocaine was being used in her family's central Phoenix
apartment. However, some experts agreed with agency officials who said the
state had no authority to keep Anndreah from going home from the hospital
or to remove her two older brothers from the household.

Since 2000, Arizona has required that health care professionals notify CPS
when they encounter a drug-affected newborn. CPS investigates such reports
and provides the family with health services, said Anna Arnold, associate
director of the Division of Children, Youth and Families.

"Even in this case, when we substantiated the use of substances, that
doesn't necessarily mean we'll remove children," she said. "A lot of people
have asked, 'Wasn't the mother's cocaine use proof enough?' But it's not."

In Arizona, there is no law that makes prenatal substance abuse a crime. In
1995, an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling found that heroin use during
pregnancy does not constitute child abuse under Arizona statutes. CPS
officials said the ruling ties their hands.

CPS must find evidence that children are in imminent danger, Arnold said.
Drug use by parents or adults in the household does not necessarily mean
that a child isn't being fed or clothed. She said the agency's
investigation of the Robertson household was active at the time of the
infant's death.

Since the mid-1980s, when crack cocaine created an epidemic of drug babies,
policymakers have struggled to address substance abuse during pregnancy.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Ruth Solomon said that it appears CPS
should have acted, but said caseworkers are "between a rock and a hard
place" when it comes to substance-abusing parents.

"There are a lot of people in the world who are alcoholics or recreational
drug users. Do we take their children?" said Solomon, D- Tucson. "But when
a baby is born crack-addicted, . . . if you are going to err, you should
err on the side of the safety of the child."

Thirteen states have laws specifying that a baby born exposed to drugs is
presumed to be abused or neglected and that such a condition provides
grounds for removing the infant from the mother's custody, according to a
report released earlier this month by the Guttmacher Institute, a
Washington, D.C., non-profit for sexual and reproductive health research.

Another state, South Carolina, holds that a woman's prenatal substance
abuse constitutes criminal child abuse.

House Appropriations Chairwoman Laura Knaperek, a past critic of CPS, said
it appears that the agency should have taken action in behalf of Anndreah
Robertson.

"I don't know all the facts yet, but there is an expectation from the
people of Arizona that our Child Protective Services should step in in
certain situations, and I would think this would be one of them," said
Knaperek, R-Tempe. "I don't think we can make the system perfect, but we
need to hold it accountable."

House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, vowed that lawmakers will get to the
bottom of the Robertson case.

"I am trying to reserve any judgment until there is more fact-finding
done," he said. "But it looks like this is just poor judgment."

Weiers said if the investigation reveals that a CPS employee or supervisor
erred, "we don't want them in that position to be able to make those
decisions again."