Show and Tell with Mum's Crack Pipe

I can't believe some of the frightful things I read in the online news. One of the latest I read about was a tiny tot, in kindergarten, who took his mother's crack pipe and methamphetamines to "Show and Tell".

The "several baggies of crack rocks" discovered in the boy's backpack were worth around $3,700, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"When I called the prosecutor about it, they said, 'You're kidding me, aren't you?'" Sweet Springs Police Chief Richard Downing told KCTV5 earlier this month. (September)

Obviously, the police were called, and a later search of the little boy's home revealed another crack pipe and butane lighter.  The mother, a 32 year old, was charged six days later with:

two class C felonies - the first for possession of a controlled substance and the other for endangering the welfare of a child. Each charge includes punishments of up to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections system and up to a $5,000 fine.

Michelle Marie Cheatham

When I read articles of this nature I have to shudder in horror - obviously the little boy was well accustomed to seeing his mother light up, so much so that it was just a normal part of his life.

What shocks me the most?  For a start, the fact that this hard-faced woman not only smoked the drug around her little boy, but also carelessly left the drug and paraphenalia where he could have free access to it.  Little people like to copy, don't they?  I wonder how long it would have been before he decided to try to copy mummy? 

One other thing that shocks me is the value of the baggies the litle guy had in his kindergarten backpack.  I can think of only two ways his "mother" would have afforded this - either selling crack, or selling herself.  Either way, she is a damned lousy example of motherhood.

Another one who deserves a bullet, in my not so humble opinion.