{"id":7075,"date":"2016-12-24T05:39:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T05:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2305506"},"modified":"2016-12-24T05:39:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T05:39:52","slug":"drug-related-child-welfare-cases-have-increased-in-colorado-but-connection-to-legalized-marijuana-is-unclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/drug-related-child-welfare-cases-have-increased-in-colorado-but-connection-to-legalized-marijuana-is-unclear\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug-related child welfare cases have increased in Colorado, but connection to legalized marijuana is unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/drug-related-child-welfare-cases-have-increased-in-colorado-but-connection-to-legalized-marijuana-is-unclear\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Colorado child-protection cases related to drug use have increased since the state opened recreational marijuana shops three years ago, yet it\u2019s unclear how much the uptick relates to pot.<\/p>\n<p>Child welfare cases involving drug use by a parent or foster parent went up by about 2 percentage points from 2013 to\u00a02015, even as the total number of new child welfare cases declined. That\u2019s an increase from\u00a01,513 drug-related cases to 1,720 statewide. What\u2019s unknown is how many of those cases involved marijuana or any other number of drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and prescription painkillers.<\/p>\n<p>Still, a Joint Budget Committee staff briefing this month suggested county child welfare departments use money from the state\u2019s \u201cmarijuana tax cash fund\u201d because of the impact pot has had on abuse and neglect investigations. Child welfare caseloads have increased since marijuana legalization, \u201cspecifically cases related to child marijuana exposure,\u201d according to the legislative briefing from budget staff.<\/p>\n<p>Until the state collects better data, however, the precise impact of marijuana on child abuse and neglect cases is unknown. The state child welfare department\u2019s computer system does not\u00a0track drug-specific information, although that will change next year.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the lack of data, county child welfare workers report that legalized marijuana has complicated their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado opened a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/12\/30\/colorado-receives-205000-calls-in-first-year-of-child-abuse-hotline\/\">new statewide child abuse hotline<\/a> in 2015, a year after recreational pot shops opened. Since then, the state has seen a surge in calls alleging abuse and neglect, reaching about 17,000 per month. The timing of both events, and the scarcity of\u00a0data, makes it difficult to sort out whether the increase in calls was all due to the new hotline or whether legalizing marijuana impacted the number of calls.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting that a parent or caregiver uses marijuana is not in and of itself cause for opening a child abuse or neglect investigation \u2014 child welfare caseworkers only perform an \u201cassessment\u201d when there is concern for a child\u2019s safety.\u00a0Marijuana has long been a part of the conversation as caseworkers determine whether to open a child welfare investigation, years before it was legal.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>Legalized marijuana has added another layer in determining a child\u2019s safety, but child protection workers don\u2019t think it has single-handedly resulted in an explosion of abuse and neglect investigations.\u00a0Child welfare workers get involved when a newborn tests positive for marijuana, when a child has ingested marijuana or when a caregiver\u2019s marijuana use harms a child\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe drug use may be a factor, but are the kids getting to school every day, are they fed, are they cared for, are they running in the streets unattended, are there people coming into the home that are unknown to them?\u201d said Barb Weinstein, associate director of Jefferson County\u2019s division of children, youth and families.<\/p>\n<p>Legalizing marijuana has meant more kids are exposed to the drug \u2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/07\/25\/colorado-kids-emergency-room-visits-marijuana-increased\/\">a JAMA Pediatrics study<\/a> found that emergency-room visits and poison-control calls for kids ages 9 and younger who consumed pot in Colorado jumped after recreational marijuana stores opened.\u00a0About twice as many kids visited Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado\u2019s emergency room per year in 2014 and 2015 compared with before the opening of recreational marijuana stores. Annual poison-control cases increased fivefold.<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado Department of Human Services, which includes child welfare, did\u00a0not ask for money from\u00a0the marijuana tax cash fund in a <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/a\/state.co.us\/humanservices\/latest-news\/jointbudgetcommitteehearingresponsesandpresentation\">legislative presentation<\/a> this week, despite the Joint Budget Committee briefing suggesting that that makes sense. The fund had $92 million\u00a0available for the current budget year.<\/p>\n<p>Executive director Reggie Bicha told lawmakers the department would in July begin tracking drug-specific data on child abuse and neglect cases. The department\u2019s computer system includes detailed information about each child welfare case, including drug use or exposure, but the system cannot tally those incidents as aggregate data.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana, though, isn\u2019t the drug child welfare workers are most concerned about, Bicha told the committee. More than pot, they are seeing increased impact on children from heroin, meth and prescription drugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always had marijuana impact many of the families that we work with,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cThat\u2019s not necessarily new.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several county child welfare departments were reluctant to discuss the impact of legalized marijuana, given the data deficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Denver County\u2019s child welfare workers \u201chave been working with legalized marijuana in our state in some form since medical marijuana laws were passed about 15 years ago,\u201d said Amy Fidelis, deputy director of communications.<\/p>\n<p>In Adams County, the \u201cvast majority\u201d of drug-related child welfare cases that meet the legal threshold for opening a case\u00a0involve opioids, cocaine, meth or heroin, said spokesman Jim Siedleck. \u201cOur initial review indicates we have not seen any significant increase in referrals due exclusively to marijuana use over the past two years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the number of hotline calls regarding child abuse and neglect has climbed in recent years, the number of new cases in which caseworkers were\u00a0assigned to protect children has declined. New cases dropped from 12,237 in 2013 to 10,625 in 2015. At the same time, open cases involving drug use increased by 194.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado child protection cases related to drug use have increased since the state opened recreational marijuana shops three years ago, yet it&#8217;s unclear how much the uptick relates to pot. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6907,6811,6908,6892,6813,77,6815,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6909,6816,6910,6893,6818,2655,6820,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}