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The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (DEC) defines drug endangered children as children who are at risk of suffering physical, mental or emotional harm as a result of parent or caregiver legal or illegal substance misuse. They may also be children whose caretaker’s legal or illegal substance use interferes with the caretaker’s ability to parent and provide a safe and nurturing environment. Children are often the first affected but can be the last recognized as being affected by substance misuse, often subjected to adverse childhood events such as physical, emotional, and psychological trauma which puts them at risk for negative long-term challenges. In addition, drug endangered children are often the same children who are at risk for Familial Human Trafficking (FHT). Familial Human Trafficking involves children who are trafficked by their parents or caregivers, often inside the family home, many times involving illegal drug use issues. Identifying these children as early as possible, intervening appropriately, and providing much needed services to the children and their family members is critical in order to break the generational cycle of substance misuse. In addition, it is imperative that we learn to identify adults who were subjected to these traumas as children in order to encourage the healing that is needed to move forward as a healthy adult.
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