A doctor has elaborated on the possible long and short-term consequence of such early drug use.
A community uproar led to an all-night ordeal to save a young child from potential abuse.
Community activists on Tuesday night went on a crusade to rescue a three-year-old boy who was filmed allegedly inhaling narcotics through a makeshift pipe.
The activists broadcast much of their mission to find the boy’s family and get assistance from police and medical professionals.
Community response
Community anti-drug activist Curt van Heerden, founder of the Institution of Grace, described how the pipe was lit before the adults encouraged the small boy to inhale.
“What makes it worse and even more heartbreaking is that they actually coach him how to smoke,” said Van Heerden as he was filmed driving to the residence of those in the video.
WATCH: Van Heerden‘s explanation
Upon arriving at the block of flats where they believed the implicated adults lived, Van Heerden and his colleagues interrogated residents.
The boy’s mother was located and taken to Sophiatown police station by Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) officers.
Child received medical attention
Police confirmed on Wednesday morning that the mother and two men, all aged between 28 and 36, had been arrested in connection with the incident.
“[They] will be charged with child abuse under domestic violence. They will appear before the Johannesburg Regional Court on 31 July,” police spokesperson Brenda Muridili said in response to The Citizen‘s enquiry.
Medical treatment
At roughly midnight, Van Heerden was with the father of the child at Sophiatown police station.
By 1:30am, the child had not received any medical attention, and by 2:15am, Van Heerden was driving the child and his grandmother to a hospital in the Johannesburg CBD.
Van Heerden relayed that by 3am the boy was receiving treatment and he reported at 4.45am that the “child’s health was intact”, although he was left in the custody of social services.
“It rips my heart. He didn’t want to let go. He just kept on holding me. It is very hard for a gran to let a child go,” said the child’s grandmother.
Van Heerden was in Newclare throughout Wednesday search for an additional male suspect who is believed to have been present at the time of the incident.
Medical doctor issues warning
Dr Marlin McKay elaborated on the possible long and short-term consequence of such early drug use.
McKay said that, depending on the quantity consumed, the child’s mother risked severely damaging the child — or worse.
“An overdose in such a small body can be fatal due to the immature development of the child’s organs,” McKay told The Citizen.
He noted that the child’s undeveloped brain, heart and liver could potentially fail, as could the lungs.
Other than the physical dangers, the child was at severe risk of lasting developmental impediments that would result in mood disorders, aggression, ADHD, and many other behavioural disorders.
Even if the incident was a once-off, McKay said that by exposing the boy to such behaviour created the likelihood that they would be repeated in the future.
“Yes, there are the stresses of life and times are hard but that really isn’t an excuse. One thing that changes when you become pregnant is the desire to be a proud mom and expose your child to everything that is positive,” he explained, urging parent to be good role models.
McKay warned that expecting mothers who smoked and drank alcohol were equally at risk of hampering their child’s development or exposing them to foetal abnormalities.
“Our children should be protected at all costs but it really should start at pregnancy,” McKay concluded.
‘Visionary leadership’ needed
A study by the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) showed that less than 1% of children exposed to drugs were under the age of 10.
Van Heerden told The Citizen that this specific type of incident was rare but that addiction was a daily occurrence in the communities he serves.
He has worked to help rehabilitate addicts for 10 years and said he was spurred into action because “it is something close to my heart”.
Striving to give addicts hope, Van Heerden said building functioning communities required guidance from the ground, up.
“This is a generation without fathers. There are various causes, mainly tied to poverty, but it is such a multi-layered problem,” he said on Wednesday.
“It must be dealt with systematically. The problem did not occur over night and it will take visionary leadership to lay a pathway to deeper societal change,” he added.
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