PARENTS ON DRUGS RISK THE HORRIFIC

It's a Shakespearean tragedy for modern times: Michelle Lee Fox, 25,
is on trial in Linn County Circuit Court, charged with manslaughter in
connection with the March 8, 2004, death of her 7-month-old son, Brody
James Fox.

The defense is not denying that baby Brody died of heat exhaustion
after his mother left him in a closed black Pontiac under the direct
rays of the sun while she and a friend took marijuana and
methamphetamines in a nearby trailer.

The defense contends that Fox checked on her son periodically; that
she didn't bring him inside because Fox reportedly didn't want to do
drugs in front of her child.

The trial is expected to last four days, and then we'll hear what a
jury thought of that logic.

But even at this stage, the trial prompts reflection on a recent
conversation with Benton County law enforcement authorities over the
tragedy that drug use daily inflicts on its most immediate victims --
children.

Most of us feel the impact of drug use when someone breaks into our
car or home looking for something to steal. We feel it in the way we
no longer feel as safe in our neighborhoods; in the number of lives we
see derailed this way.

Our victimization by drugs doesn't compare, however, to what the
children of drug users endure daily in thousands of ways, trivial to
tragic.

Aside from seeing their family's resources diverted to drug use
instead of to provide a nurturing home, these children are denied a
fundamental right that all children should have: parents who are at
their best, always ready to provide a good example and -- most
fundamentally -- a strong protector.

Those who try to combine being parents with being tweakers, tokers and
drunks risk everything. They risk far more than jail.

Michelle Lee Fox probably could tell you that.