Innocent Mother Claims She Tested Positive for Meth While Giving Birth to Her Son

Innocent Mother Claims She Tested Positive for Meth While Giving Birth to Her Son
(Maggie Downs)
Jack Phillips
5/26/2016
Updated:
12/15/2017

What should be one of the happiest days of her life turned out to be a massive ordeal.

Southern California mom Maggie Downs went into labor and prepared to give birth to her son in 2014. While she was in labor, Downs was informed she had tested positive for methamphetamine---even though she claimed she had never used the drug, she wrote for USA Today.

Downs naturally protested the test, saying that the worst drug she had ingested during her pregnancy was Tylenol. A second test was then administered which also came back positive.

Downs was then informed that Child Protective Services (CPS) would be called in to evaluate her once the child was born.

The expecting mother couldn’t figure out why it was coming back positive, but she eventually connected the dots: it was her asthma inhaler.

Her husband searched the Internet, finding a connection between asthma inhalers and positive methamphetamine tests before relaying proof to doctors and nurses.

The next day, Downs’ son was born. And when she went to change the diaper for the first time, she noticed he had a plastic bag over his genitalia.

According to USA Today, she said:
“When I change my son’s diaper for the very first time, there is a plastic bag covering his genitals,” she explains, “a band of tape cinching it tight. It doesn’t strike me as abnormal until the nurse peering over my shoulder shakes her head no.”
“I don’t think that’s enough urine for a sample,” the nurse says. “We'll have to do it again.”
“Of course,” Maggie realizes. “They have to test my child for drugs, and this is how it’s done. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, this tiny baby part wrapped in plastic, this uncomfortable, squawking child. His skin is so silky and new, the plastic so crinkly and manufactured.”

Several weeks after bringing her son home, Downs said she worried about CPS showing up.

After three weeks, Downs and her husband got the call they were waiting for from a hospital social worker. The worker revealed she wasn’t taking drugs.

“My son is asleep against my shoulder, and I don’t want to disrupt him,” Downs added. “Instead I walk over to the patio door, pull open the blinds, and for the first time in weeks, let the light in.”

A variety of crystal meth equipment that were confiscated as part of Operation Slab at the North Shore Policing Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, on Aug. 19, 2010. (Phil Walter/Getty Images)
A variety of crystal meth equipment that were confiscated as part of Operation Slab at the North Shore Policing Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, on Aug. 19, 2010. (Phil Walter/Getty Images)

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Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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