Not one but two separate cases have been reported recently of adults exposing children to drugs this week in the Philadelphia suburbs.
In Upper Darby in Delaware County, a couple was accused of exposing their 16-month-old son to heroin, causing him to overdose.
Meanwhile, in Honey Brook in Chester County, a man is accused of giving his stepson crystal meth.
Upper Darby police this week charged Nora Boyle, 35 and Greg Searl, 42, with endangering the welfare of a child and related charges for allegedly overdosing their son on heroin.
The baby is believed to have ingested heroin cut with fentanyl earlier this week, Upper Darby Police announced. Boyle and Searl surrendered to police to face charges on Wednesday.
“The scourge of heroin almost claimed another life. 16 month old child ingests drugs left behind by household member,” Upper Darby Police tweeted when the incident was first reported. “Lucky to be alive after being treated at hospital.”
The child reportedly chewed on empty drug baggies containing residue of the drugs, before overdosing, and had to be treated with Narcan at a hospital to save his life.
“That child was lucky enough to get to the hospital, being taken by the drug addict father and mother, to where the doctor shot him up with Narcan,” Upper Darby Police superintendent Michael Chitwood told 6ABC. There were reportedly 12 empty packages and bags in the couple’s home on the 700 block of West Chester Pike.
Police say Boyle was watching the child when she passed out on the couch, at which point he is believed to have chewed on the baggies. Searl returned to the home and found the baby unconscious, before rushing him to a hospital. Searl reportedly admitted to police that he had consumed five bags on fentanyl the night before their son overdosed.
Meanwhile, over in Chester County, Harold Nuse, 43, of Honey Brook, Pa., is charged with endangering the welfare of children for feeding his stepson crystal meth, a crime police discovered in connection with an arrest a month ago.
Pennsylvania State troopers around 3:45 a.m. on Dec. 24 reported to a Wal-Mart in West Sadsbury Township where a 200o Chevrolet Silverado was parked and running. Inside the car were three boys, 11, 8 and 6, as well as a 9mm pistol in plain view on the center console with ammunition above the front seat visor.
Nuse and his wife Brandy Nuse exited the Wal-Mart around 4:15 a.m. Both parents were arrested at that time.
However, later during the investigation, one of the boys told child abuse investigators that on at least five occasions, Harold Nuse took him to a shed and fed him something that was white in color and looked like a “weird gem” which he described as not tasting good. The boy spat it out at times, but Nuse put it back in his mouth under his tongue and told him to “wait for it to dissolve,” according to the criminal complaint. The boy’s mother was present for several of these times.
Investigators later determined Nuse had given the boy crystal meth. The exact motivations were not reported by prosecutors.
“Drugs and children do not mix,” Chesco DA Tom Hogan said in a statement. “Unfortunately, crystal meth has been making a comeback in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Heroin dealers are now pushing their clients to crystal meth. This is a trend that law enforcement will have to address, as crystal meth use can lead to violent and irrational behavior.”
