Kids Shot Up With Heroin by Parents Who Called It 'Feel-Good Medicine'

A couple in Washington state is facing multiple charges after they gave heroin to their three young children as 'feel-good medicine.'

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Parents in Washington state are facing multiple charges after allegedly injecting their children with heroin, which they called "feel-good medicine." Even without the heroin, officials say the children's living conditions were "deplorable."

According to the News Tribune, 24-year-old Ashlee Hutt and her 25-year-old boyfriend Mac McIver are facing "three counts each of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, second-degree criminal mistreatment, and second-degree child assault." According to booking records, they're both in jail with their bails set at $100,000 each.

Hutt and McIver, both admitted heroin addicts, allegedly abused their three children: a 2-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl, and a 6-year-old boy. The oldest child described McIver choking him and then injecting the boy with heroin, or "feel-good medicine," as the parents reportedly called it. The boy said his parents would mix a white powder with water and then would inject the children with heroin using a needle. They'd usually go to sleep afterward, the boy said. 

In November of 2015, the three children were taken from Hutt and McIver's home, which had heroin as well as needles and rat poop. The Washington Post reports that, according to Child Protective Services, "multiple individuals lived at the residence and everyone was using heroin." CPS investigators noticed cuts, track marks, and bruising on one of the children, which indicated heroin injection. Even two months later, the 2-year-old girl tested positive for heroin.

"The kids lived in deplorable conditions. It wasn't a good living situation even without the issue of heroin," Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Detective Ed Troyer told the Washington Post. While they "unfortunately find kids living in deplorable conditions all too often," Troyer says, "We don't see parents intentionally putting drugs into kids."

Hutt's trial starts on Dec. 20, and McIver's begins on Feb. 16, 2017.

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