My name is Tiffani Howard and a dear blood relative of mine is addicted to intravenous Heroin, Fentanyl, Alcohol and Cigarettes and she is now pregnant with her first child. After many attempts to intervene, get her rehabilitation and two attempts to serve an Order to Apprehend her and place her in the custody of Detox, Rehabilitation and Mental Health Professionals have all failed due to her adamant reluctance to participate in inpatient treatment. I have now stopped trying to catch her because it is causing severe effects on my own serious health concerns. My relative is aware that the ongoing ingestion of street made Fentanyl could not only kill her unborn child but also take her life as it has done to 13 of her friends. She still refuses treatment. My relative is aware that due to the fact that both her and the father of the unborn are addicted to intravenous street made Fentanyl that there is a high probability that the child will genetically inherit addiction behaviors, she still refuses treatment. She is aware that there is a high probability that if the unborn fetus survives to term, they will be born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) to include withdrawal symptoms, tremors, irritability, excessive crying, sleep problems, poor feeding, seizures, vomiting and a variety of possible lifelong birth defects. She still refuses treatment and has vowed to use drugs for the rest of her life because she likes it. Using drugs while you are pregnant is the worse form of child abuse a parent can enlist on their innocent unborn child. In the same way our Supreme Court has removed the Abortion Law Roe Vs Wade to protect and give rights to unborn babies; we must do all we can to protect unborn babies from being born deformed and harmed by the drug abuse of their mother.

Proposed Legislation-The Catherine Law

My Pain Will Not Be in Vain

I have been unable to stop my pregnant relative from her drug abuse, but my pain will not be in vain. I propose that we create legislation that mandate detox and inpatient rehabilitation for pregnant women addicted to drugs. This mandate will require pregnant women to submit to inpatient rehabilitation for a period of one year and then transition with their babies into a probationary period of another 2 years living in housing outside of the treatment center. During this 2 year period, they are required to submit to weekly drug testing of themselves and the baby. If the mother and/or baby are found to have a positive drug test, the child will be immediately remanded to the custody of Child Protective Services and the State may impose criminal charges against the mother as they see fit.

I propose that the Federal Government allocate funding procured from opioid lawsuits and taxes to inpatient detox and recovery centers specifically designed for SUD Pregnant Mothers and the program I just described. I ask that we study the program and provide statistics that show comparison figures spent on submitting these women to this mandate versus the costs previously defined to include healthcare for two or more people (mother and children), litigation, incarceration, etc. that the tax payer would be subjected to without the Catherine Law Legislation.

What is Fentanyl abuse doing to our nation?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pharmaceutical FDA approved for treating severe pain experienced with ailments like Cancer and is up to 100 times more potent than Morphine and street made Heroin. The CDC reports that Fentanyl overdose deaths increased over 56% from 2019 to 2020 in the US and rose even higher during the Covid pandemic in 2021. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated at the United States Conference of Mayors on January 18th 2023, that Fentanyl attributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths and has become the number 1 killer of American citizens age 18 to 49. Secretary Blinken is working with international partners to disrupt the synthetic drug supply chain and they are committed to executing solutions that can actually make a difference in our communities. At the same conference New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asked that the government categorize this Fentanyl crisis as a national emergency and calls for more programs that will offer rehabilitation and government funding for these programs. Adams states verbatim, “This is a battle to save human lives.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that addiction costs America around $600 Billion per year. Addiction cost are in the form of healthcare, law enforcement, criminal justice, lost wages, treatment and drug related crime. These costs can be inherited genetically and environmentally by the children of drug abusers causing future ramifications for tax payers, victims suffering from their crimes, generational deaths and our generational failure to prevent this ongoing cycle of pain.

In Closing

It is my prayer that this legislation will be sponsored and supported by all political parties in our local and federal government. It is my prayer that this legislation will be passed by the House and the Senate and be given to the President or Governor to sign and turned into a law. It is my prayer that although the Catherine Law may not go into effect in time to save my relatives from this drug abuse; that it will at least save the lives of thousands if not millions yet to be born and their mothers in the generations of Americans alive when it passes and to be born in the future.

Please sign my petition to show our Law Makers that you support the Catherine Law Legislation I am proposing for our unborn babies and their mothers, so we can do something effective about this Fentanyl Crisis in OUR United States of America.