Calling the police or CPS won't help at all, both are capricious organisations who will just make the situation worse.

So if OP lives in an efficiency apartment or doesn't have a job or has debilitating problems of his own, he's a dick? Lots of financial or circumstantial problems could be preventing him from taking the kids in, and it's a shitty thing to judge someone on without a lot of further evidence.

OP, nudes of cousin? Just so we can see if she is prison material or not.

Wanted to add one more thing: You can't always judge by looks wehther someone was on drugs.

When I was in high school a cop told my parents I was 100% on something when I was just sleep deprived (Doom II and Civilization..)

Pride never called him a dick, or even implied it. Hes also correct with what he said as well.

Where do you think the kids would do better, in an efficiency apartment with a stable person, or with their junky mom? Don't have a job? Go get one. Need more money? Get a second job. Yeah sure there are always edge cases, OP has cancer, OP is an invalid, etc etc. 99% of the time tho, its just it would be waaaay too hard to make it work and you are choosing not to. Which there is absolutely nothing wrong with, doesn't make you a dick in the slightest, they arent your kids.

btw, it's "junkie." Unless she likes to collect junk.

Yea I'm changing that, been tilting me.

There's literally no way I could answer that question that wouldn't get me flamed mercilessly. I'll just say that I'm considering the possibility of it even though it would be very difficult considering the current situation I'm in.

This is impressive work my friend...

She's newer to the heroin game. She was just your normal struggling welfare Mom for most of her mothering years (16-31). She dealt with some pretty tragic deaths, including the grandpa-type uncle that took care of her and her kids for years dying of a stroke in 2012 and her also junkie mother dying of earlier this year.

She's always been lazy, jumping from guy to guy, not wanting to work...seemed like deep in her there was a desire to be the prototype soccer Mom, but she just never could turn it or was interested in doing what was truly needed to do so.

Well, three kids by three different Dads.

Child 1 - 16 year old girl by a guy who is now in prison and has AIDS. Long time thief/felon. Had this one when she herself was 16. Was involved a few times a year with the girl before prison.

Child 2 - 12 year old boy whose Dad is floating around the area boosting and doing heroin. Never talked to or seen the boy. Piece of garbage.

Child 3 - 10 year old boy whose Dad is the ex-con/murderer/Mexican gang member.

So, yeah, not good...

Thank you. Jesus. Lot of Father Flanigans in here....things must be real easy for alot of folks reviewing this thread.

People ITT vastly overestimating CPS or whatever the relevant agency in OP's jurisdiction getting a call from some random saying someone is a bad mom and on drugs and having the authorities kick down the door and take the kids away.

A shoplifting arrest isn't a blip on the radar. Mothers are in and out of the system all the time, and taking away their kids is incredibly difficult if they don't want them taken.

And the talk about OP taking in the kid - even if he wanted to, you can't just take some mother's child away and poof now they are yours. That isn't how this works. That isn't how any of this works.

OP - Is your cousin amenable to having her kids taken away from her? If not, some shoplifting, unproven allegations of drug use, and a boyfriend who is an ex-con who served his time doesn't add up to separating a mother from her children.

Best case, you or a relative can negotiate with her to provide temporary housing for just the kids under the guise of giving her time to "get your act together". Going to the cops/government to take the kids isn't going to engender cooperation.

Really appreciate the insight in here everyone. Very helpful to hear this stuff.

Speaking with loads of professional experience in child welfare here - many cities are now willing to do kinship foster care or subsidized guardianship, where kids get to go with family but they get some help financially. This may be a good option. Going the straight CPS route and hoping they get a good foster home is a crapshoot.

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I shot heroin for 7 years (I've been clean for about 8 now). Speaking from my experience and what I witnessed in others at the time, no one is going to quit unless they themselves really want to. I had a heroin induced stroke, died of an overdose, been in jail, and been in rehab, and none of that mattered until I was ready to fully commit to quitting.

Addiction is a weird thing, man. Don't think you can ever "fix" someone by calling the police or other agencies on them. You'll just make that person hate you, and you won't fix anything. At least not in what I have witnessed. Of all the people I used to get high with, only a couple are clean like me. Most of the others are dead. Its been about 8 years, and I still think about dope every ****ing day. It's nothing to mess with.

Kids grow up so fast these days.

Just put it to bed.

If she's that prolific she'll get caught soon enough.

The cops have probably just put it out there as a matter of course and are secretly hoping nobody identifies her

Recovered alcoholic and pillhead here. Totally agree that an addict needs to want recovery, but their life turning into a complete disaster often has something to do with that.

Absolutely agree, though, that the goal should not be to fix the addict. You're right, nobody's going to do that except the addict themselves. Everything should be done to protect the people the addict is harming. And if getting the addict shipped to jail will do that, then ship ship away.

Ship the addict to prison, IMO.