That is sad that WIC is becoming an avenue for supplying the illicit drug industry with an ingredient.  I realise that this is a complex issue.  However, since the US government funds the purchase of the artificial baby milk (ABM) concerned, surely this is a time when some sort of monitoring can be done (without overtly singling out breastfeeding mothers).  Giving breastfeedng mothers some sort of realistic bonus might be a way of lessening this "off label" use of ABM, as well as encouraging continued breastfeeding.  (Does any state have such a program?  Does it work, and if not, how could it be improved?)
Better still, perhaps this is an issue on which concerned advocates of breastfeeding can begin long-term, consistent lobbying of their legislators on the need to provide low-income mothers with adequate social security benefits, so that they don't need to obtain and sell ABM to make some money.  (My country, also, is one of the few developed countries that lacks paid maternity leave.) 
It seems to me, looking at this from the outside, that the federal money being used to provide the ABM that is ending up with drug dealers, is likely to lead to the need for even more expenditure by society, in policing and in treatment of drug affected individuals.
Free ABM --> sale to drug dealers --> expenditure on policing/treatment/courts/prisons
Perhaps an economist on this list could work out the all-up costs?

Virginia

Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC.
Lactation Consultant (original cohort of 1985).
Cultural historian of the History of Medicine.
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
[log in to unmask]

On Wed, 8 Aug 2007 Patricia Gordon wrote (regarding the theft of artificial baby milk):

"This has become a national problem and has nothing to do with feeding
babies.  Powdered formula is, apparently, the perfect medium for
combining with heroin and/or other street drugs, and it is a hot
commodity in the druggie community.  In WIC some women are getting full
formula pkgs while breastfeeding so they can sell it as a "cash crop" to
the drug dealers.  This has been written up in numerous newspapers.  I
don't know why they can't use powdered milk, but I guess powdered
formula works better for the purpose.  Very sad."

P.D. Gordon RN, BS, BSN, IBCLC
DE Div of Public Health-Communicable Disease


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