It is estimated that 60,000 children in Scotland live with parents who are drug addicts and each year more than 300 babies are born in Scotland to parents addicted to illegal drugs.
Recently the problems facing these children hit the headlines when an 11 year old girl in Glasgow was taken to hospital having collapsed at school after taking heroin. First Minister Jack McConnell said in the Scottish parliament that more must be done to tackle drugs and, according to some reports, plans are being considered to increase the number of children of addicts placed in care. One academic Prof Neil McKeganey of Glasgow University has reportedly suggested that drug addicted mothers who fail to kick their habit within a year of giving birth should have their children put up for adoption automatically.
So should children stay with drug addicted parents or is it in the best interests of the child to be put in care? Jenni asks David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum and Maxie Richards of the Maxie Richards Foundation, a Scottish charity which helps addicts to come off drugs.
