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Media reporting of cases of parental neglect or abuse brought about by drug dependence and the growing prominence of such families on child protection registers points to a problem that is seemingly escalating, and one that we have woken up to late. In retrospect it was obvious that the young people caught up in the heroin epidemics of the 1980s would go on to have children of their own and many would continue to have a drug problem long after the birth of their children.

But having a drug problem does not necessarily mean an inability to parent. A recent Glasgow study of drug-dependent parents and their children confirms the dangers and risks children can be exposed to where a parent's attention is diverted by their drug needs. The children of drug-dependent parents can face many extreme risks as in two situations described here. A 15-year-old boy, David, described a violent incident that arose out of his mother's and uncle's drug dealing from the house. In his words: "That was scary cos these guys who used to buy stuff off ma uncle they all burst in and were holding knives to our throats and that, asking for the drugs and the money. And they were saying they would cut our throats if they didn't give 'em it."


On another occasion a mother recounted how her 18-month-old toddler had been at extreme risk through the inattention of the also drug dependent partner. "He says 'Jan, I was too scared to tell you, but when I woke up this morning she was at the top of the stairs and she had an eighth (of heroin) in her hand and she was biting it'."

The episodes described here were dramatic and acute and had social services known about them would have prompted urgent intervention. Such incidents are at the extreme end of the spectrum. At the other end is the more chronic, perhaps less visible experience of need where children are swept along in the wake of their parents' drug problem.

Children ideally need parents who can provide and care for them in a safe and nurturing environment. The problem with drug dependence is that it takes parents' attention away from their children. Lack of parental attention leaves children chronically vulnerable to not having their emotional, physical or social needs met and may mean they are exposed to risk. To return briefly to David, the backdrop to the episode he described was a household in which his mother's time, money and energy were focused on drugs leaving little spare capacity to care for him or his sister. Routines like eating and sleeping were wholly unpredictable. It was also difficult to anticipate parental mood swings that often oscillated violently between a heightened irritability during drug withdrawal and well-being or incapacitation when intoxicated.

David's childhood was marked by so many changes of address and so many schools that he cannot recall them all. He was so distressed by the drug dealing in his house and having to witness his mother's drug use that for a period he used to sleep during the day. He says: "I preferred that cos that way I never saw much, I just stayed up all night watching telly." This meant that he did not go to school or go out to play, further compounding the social isolation he suffered through moving so frequently. It is this less dramatic but no less serious undermining of these children's welfare and development needs that has to be brought firmly into focus.

These young people present a picture of households whose rhythms are dominated by the uncertainties of their parents' drug habits. Finding drugs often means traipsing about with children in all weathers and at all hours. As this parent acknowledges: "I used to take ma kids with me to score and we'd stand out in the rain for three hours waiting on somebody coming back with drugs. But I was still a good parent cos I had ma children standing beside me. It didnae matter that it was eleven at night and they were soaking and they were hungry and they were tired."

Not finding drugs often spelled trouble for children. Parents would be irritable and sometimes aggressive: "I remember mornings when they didn't have anything. My mum'd be sitting and you knew not to talk to her and the house'd be still, we'd all be waiting for my dad to wake up, you could hear every creak, every tiny noise cos when he did wake up you knew there'd be trouble. See, drugs made my dad terrible."


Amanda said of her mum: "She was just always dead moody, she was always in her bed and she would never go out and buy food and she would never have money to go out and get it." These young people had a fundamental sense that drugs were more important to their parents than they were. If it came to a choice between meeting their needs or those imposed by the drugs the children felt pretty certain that their needs would come second. One says: "I knew they loved me but they just didnae care that I was there and I needed stuff as well. I needed things and they were just away taking drugs and stuff."

Elise as a young child struggled to come to terms with what drugs meant in her mother's life "because she was never there for me, it must've been a bad thing cos she was never there".

These were lives often burdened by responsibilities to look after parents, siblings and the house. The price they paid was anxiety, anger, powerlessness, profound sadness and disappointment and in some of the older children a strong sense of a lost childhood. "It was as if she was the child and I was the mum," one young woman says. Looking back she adds: "It was a nightmare, an absolute nightmare, I don't think I had a childhood at all."

The strains imposed by living with a parent's drug problem were made more burdensome by the secrecy and shame associated with drug dependence. Children understood from an early age the importance of keeping the family secret. To deflect attention away from the home they invented Christmas presents that were never received and made up family outings that never happened. In their efforts to prevent ridicule and bullying from peers or attention from outside agencies like social services these young people were isolated and seldom found an outlet for the expression of their feelings.

What are the lessons that have come out of this research? First and foremost that we have a clear responsibility to recognise and respond not just to the extreme risks these children face but also the ways in which their lives are deprived of many of the normal and valued aspects of childhood. We have a statutory duty to meet children's needs with services and good sense ought to convince us of the importance of taking a preventive stance. These children are at elevated risk of developing drug problems themselves, of antisocial behaviour and poor school achievement. Preventing the predictable means finding effective and meaningful ways of supporting children and compensating for family environments stressed by drugs. This process should begin by listening to the voices of children growing up with drug-dependent parents.

Marina Barnard is a researcher at the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow.