Meth-Addicted Baby In North Dakota Returned To Mother Pending Drug Recovery Class

Federal officials returned a baby born addicted to methamphetamine to its mother, despite the woman's failure to submit to drug tests for her own addiction.

The unidentified mom, of Fargo, N.D., lost custody of the 4-month-old in October, when she allegedly failed to submit to court-ordered drug tests, according to Inforum. But in a move that's being criticized by the infant's foster parents, officials with the Bureau of Indian Affairs returned the child to her mother pending a two-week drug program on the Spirit Lake reservation.

"The foster dad is extremely frustrated," Molly McDonald, a former tribal judge who knows the foster family, told the Dickinson Press. "They placed this child back in danger with its mother."

In a report filed before the infant was returned, human services official Thomas Sullivan wrote that "It seems reasonable to conclude the mother is still addicted to meth," according to the Grand Forks Herald.

In an earlier report, Sullivan had noted that the mother didn't want anything to do with the child in the first place.

Calls to the bureau were not returned by press time, but Inforum notes that officials won't comment on individual cases.

Social services groups told the site that there are a growing number of babies being born with drugs in their system in the area of the reservation.