Mom Trina Rae Carroll Arrested for Abuse when Meth Found in Her Toddler Son
In Foothills, Arizona, Trina Rae Carroll was arrested for child abuse, child endangerment, and involving a minor in drug abuse. Methamphetamine was found in the system of her two-year-old son. The charges are considered felonies and Carrol has two priors.
She’s currently in jail with her bond set at $11,105
Carroll took the toddler to hospital when he began crying uncontrollably and complaining of stomach pain. That’s when hospital staff found methamphetamine in the child’s system. The hospital contacted police, who referred the case to the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office investigated and arrested Carroll.
Carroll admitted to using methamphetamines and opiates in front of her child. The boy has received medical attention and is in the temporary custody of his grandmother.
My gut feeling is that Caroll is probably a decent mother with a very serious drug problem. After all, she did go to the hospital when her son got sick. I just hope that her arrest will help her seek treatment so she can get her son back.
Sphere: Related Content
May 5th, 2008 at 10:19 am
It’s so sad that there are so many people, especially mothers, who have serious drug problems. I’m glad to know that the child didn’t die and was treated. Hopefully, his mother will get the help that she needs and be a better mother to her son.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
OK, Ann-Marie usually I agree with your comments/posts, but I have to dissent on this one. I don’t believe “decent mothers” do drugs in front of their children. In fact, I don’t believe decent mothers use illegal drugs at all.
I really do understand the nature of addiction. I am a food addict and have battled my weight, and my addiction for my entire adult life. I finally have my addiction under control and have lost 100 pounds in the past year. You know what the catalyst was for me to really get help and make a life change? The birth of my son. I decided I wanted to be around to watch him grow up and I did NOT want to pass my food addiction on to him.
So I understand addiction, truly. What I DON’T understand is a “mother” who cannot put her child ahead of her addiction.
There are plenty of posters on this forum who admit to having drank to excess, smoked pot and taken other drugs, and generally living wild lifestyles, but they left all that behind when they had children. They realized it was time to grow up and put someone else before themselves and their desires. Those people are “decent parents,” NOT a woman who continues to expose her child to the dangers of her addiction.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:39 am
i have to respectfully disagree with this. food “addiction” is not even in the same ballpark as drug addiction. for the record, i am horribly overweight as well but i wouldnt compare my loving to eat all the time to someone with a physical addiction to drugs.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Addictions aren’t diseases, they are choices. You can either choose to stop or shoose to be an addict. People say all the time ” I don’t want to be like this”, well don’t then. You have free choice, unlike the children who’s lives your messing up. Cancer is a disease, drugs are a choice.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Candytree, food is definitely an addiction and a more insidious one than drugs in MANY ways. As a food addict, I MUST indulge my addiction daily in order to live. Drug addicts and alcoholics, however, do not biologically require the substances they are addicted to in order to survive. I used to think the same thing – that my problem was just that I liked to eat. But once I finally admitted to myself that this was one aspect of my life I couldn’t control on my own, I realized it truly is an addiction.
It’s definitely “in the same ballpark” as drug addiction – both addictions result in the destruction of lives (of both the addict and those who love him), cause horrible health problems and cost our country billions of dollars every year dealing with people who have these addictions. The only differences that I can see are that it’s still legal to be a food addict (so you don’t have the crime associated with food addiction that you do with drug addiction), and that drug addicts get more money from the insurance industry to pursue rehab for their problems, while fat people are, frankly, on our own when it comes to paying for treatment.
Pennysue is also right. Addictions aren’t diseases, they are psychologically based compulsions and as such, we have the ability to choose to do something about them. And that’s the point I’m making about the woman in this article. If she makes the choice to continue indulging her addiction over the welfare of her child, then she’s not a very good mother and she deserves to have her child taken away from her.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
No disrespect intended, but a food addiction is not the same as drug addiction, in most cases. Depending upon the drug a person is addicted to, the addiction becomes a physical dependency upon a certain amount of the drug per day. If a heroin addict does not use the drug, they suffer from violent physical as well as psychological withdrawals. Same for narcotics and alcohol.
That said, food can certainly be an addiction. Any substance we voluntarily ingest can become an addiction, whether the addiction be phyiscal, psychological or both.
Ihavekidstoo, Congrats!! Way to go! I’ve lost a fair bit of weight myself in the past 18 months and offer you my heartfelt good wishes. This kind of weight loss ain’t for wimps.
Thank God, not another dead baby. The mom in the story has a good motivation for success. I hope she is able to overcome the craving for meth to become the best parent she can be.
No, I am not a drug addict. I’ve had some folks who I was close to who were.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Drug addicts and alcoholics, however, do not biologically require the substances they are addicted to in order to survive.
So withdrawal symptoms definitely have never killed the cold-turkey alcoholic or drug user? Not to sound snarky, but it seems to me you don’t understand the nature of addiction in the slightest, Ihavekidstoo.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
What a mom,and WTF was she thinking?! Oh yeah drug addicts never think about anything……geesh. Whatever happened to filling your kids with Ice Cream and good old fashioned sugar? I think her drug problem has definately gotten outta hand. Geesh…I mean come on couldn’t she at least halfway raise the kid before she slipped into this nasty habit?
May 9th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Actually there are observable abnormalities in the brains of drug addicts, so that’s not really a choice. It’s a disease. In fact, scientists have come close to isolating specific genes that are thought to make people more susceptible to substance addiction. Perhaps the choice lies in whether or not to use the drugs in the first place. For people who are more liable to become addicts, there’s no difference between use and abuse because it takes way less effort for them to become dependent than it does for a normal person.
With something like meth, which is extremely addictive regardless of genetics, I wish people would just never touch it. Once you get addicted to that (which doesn’t take very long) you’re going to be struggling all your life to beat it, or you’re going to give in to it and eventually die. I’ve seen some pretty sad addiction sagas in my life, and it breaks my heart every time…especially when kids are involved. I hope this woman can get clean and stay clean for the sake of her son.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:02 am
umi, spoken like a well educated person. Not only do you understand the biological aspect of addiction (better than most layman in a field of mystery to most genome theory scientist), but you show true knowledge of having been through the rough saga of being on the other end of addiction (the people who have love and care for an addict). Well stated.
pennysue, I’ve seen addicts die from their addictions, I’ve seen them ruin their families and careers for another hit, but I have never seen an addict quit and stay clean without a large support network of family and friends. They don’t just wake up one day and say ‘…hey i’m realy screwing up here, i better stop…’ and all the sudden they are cured. It’s a long hard battle back to normal life (very much like my grandfathers failed battle with cancer). Even cancer patients in remission are not always safe, and it’s the same with a recovering addict. That being said, I do not agree with using drugs or alcohol as an excuse to do bad things or harm anyone (especially not a child). I do not think that a drug addict has any business raising a child.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I want to tell you a story about a woman born addicted to coke and heroin, abused by the man her mother was married to and abandoned in a bar in another state when she was just 6 months old. Now you would think that knowing that history she would make the logical choice not to do drugs right? WRONG…
At 24 years old, left to raise her 4 year old daughter alone, she had to take three jobs to make ends meet…and that was with state medical and foodstamps. She spent every moment she could with her daughter but there were not enough hours in the day to work, take care of her child, and sleep. Now summer was upon her and her child care went south, dad re-entered the picture and through the wisdom of the court system he was allowed to take the child for the summer. She thought “great….I can work my ass off, save some cash and get us into a better situation by the time my baby comes home.”
One night at her waitressing job, a “friend” saw how tired she was and offered her a pickmeup. At that point she just wanted to get through the shift so she accepted. A few nights later the friend offered again….after a month she needed the meth to get up in the morning, some more to make it through the morning, even more to get through the rest of the day….do you see a pattern here? At the end of August when it was time for her little girl to come home to Mommy…Mommy was homeless…in spite of all her good intentions, in spite of her childhood, in spite of knowing that she was more suseptable to drugs because of both her mother and bio father being addicts/alcoholics. She made a horrible choice and now she faced the prospect of living under a bridge in a box with her child.
She made the choice to give up her daughter and have the dad raise her. She knew that the addiction to this drug was stronger than her will and she had to do what was best for her child…at this time, it was not her.
Fast forward four years later………at the end of a 14 day high, she crashes. Three days later she wakes up in the hospital and they tell her that she has a choice, quit and live or keep on and die. She chooses life. She manages to stay clean for four months and then runs into the “friend” and panic’s but manages to resist the urge and goes immediately to her local DSHS office and ask for help with treatment. They get her in and she graduates with the following truth…of the 34 people that entered treatment that day, at the end of one year 75% will have relapsed….at the end of 2 years only 2 people will have managed to stay clean. Scary thought…
She is the only one left after the first year.
14 1/2 years later….still clean
her little girl is now 21 and engaged to a wonderful man.
her 13 year old son, whom she got pregnant with one week out of treatment, is a great kid who designs his own board games, is a computer whiz kid, and kicks her butt at any video game they play
her 12 year old son is a quiet, thoughtful child who loves to cook, is a voracious reader, and loves to play with
her 6 year old daughter who reads at a 4th grade level and is way too smart for mom
Her third husband is a wonderful man who knows all about her past, all the horrible, nasty, ugly things she had to do to survive and loves her all the more for it knowing that it was that struggle that makes her the woman she is.
I will fight for the rest of my life with my addiction. In some ways my fight has to be easier than those with and addiction to alcohol or food or any other easily accessable legal thing. The only good choice I made while using was to remove my daughter and make sure she was safe…safe from me and safe from my drugs. Well, one other, I chose to live.
For those of you who have never had an addiction, or you dont know anyone who has, you can never know what its like for us, your words and kindness are appreciated, but you will still never KNOW.
Yes, what this woman did and the choices she made are horrible. When she hits her bottom, and hopefully this is it, she will have to live the rest of her life knowing that she could have killed her child. When she is released I hope that she finds the help that she needs.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:42 am
People choose to do drugs for what ever reason, and the choose to continue to do them. You don’t choose to have cancer and other diseases. (with the exception of things like lung cancer from smoking) Giving addicts an out by saying its is a disease further allows them to not take responsibility for their own actions. Yes they need help to quit, but that was their choice when they decided to take drugs to begin with. I myself have taken drugs, and at one point feel like I was an addict. But at no time, was anyone other than myself making the selfish decision to continue to do so. You always have a choice, and you will suffer the consequences, of your bad choices. No ones fault but your own. People that WANT to get clean, get clean.
May 17th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
PennySue,
No disrespect to you, ma’am, but you are coming across as a judgemental person. Please don’t judge another until you have walked a mile in my shoes. My dh is a dry alcoholic. Praise God, hubby didn’t drink today, we’ll worry about tomorrow when it arrives.
When my baby sister was about 13, she started smoking pot. Very soon after she progressed to pills, cocaine, meth, etc. You name the drug, she’s tried it. She has been arrested twice (that I know of) for prostitution–to get money to buy dope. My dh and I adopted her two babies to get them OUT of that environment.
Ma’am, with all due respect, we tried everything under the sun to keep her off dope. Rehab, jail, we took her children away!!! Nothing worked, until her “boyfriend” moved her 60 miles out into the desert and it’s pretty damned hard to find dope there in such a small town.
Down to brass tacks, the 1st time you choose to do drugs is a CHOICE. With some drugs, you don’t have a CHOICE after the 1st time you use it. Choice is a matter of a clear mind thinking using free willl. Neither the mind or the body has a choice once you become an addict. At that point the only thing that can help is someone stretching out their hand to you and the addict grabbing on tight, and The Big Man. My beloved sister went through hell, hurricanes and husbands to become clean. She has been clean over 15 YEARS now with not one single relapse.
morriganreighn, I offer you kudos for becoming a clean and functioning adult. God knows and I know the hell you went through the get through the Valley of the Shadow of Darkness. You’ve been through the worst life can hand you, and Praise God, you will live a clean and sober life and see your child grown and someday even your grandchildren.
Sure, some of you look at someone and see a hopeless, helpless drug addict. I see my sister hoping for someone to stretch out their hand and tell that addict that there is hope. Hope springs eternal in the human heart. In the end, all we have is hope & love to carry us through that Valley. I have to end this now. I am crying to hard to continue.
thank you for listing.
Proud sister of a recovering addict and proud wife of a dry alcoholic.
May 18th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Thank you morriganreighn for sharing your story.
I too have battled a drug addiction. Though i have never done Meth and from what i have read and heard I am Thankful for that. I applaud anyone who has managed to battle that demon and win. Amazing how much a child can in fact change some people. I wish more addicted Mom’s could feel as we did and decide that yes it was time to do the right thing and live for our kids.
When I see cases like this I think about that verse there but for the grace of God goes I.
I am not in anyway trying to force my beliefs on anyone I am simply saying I choose to thank God for saving me. We all have our own beliefs we choose to worship I do not like pushing what i believe on others. i feel that in time people will find their path It is not up to me or anyone else to try and force anyone onto anyone path.
As far as addiction being a choice. No sorry USE is a choice. Addiction is something totally different than just casual use. Anyone can choose to casually use. However few choose to be an addict while a person may make a choice to indulge once or twice Those with the make up towards being a addict will in fact lose control to do that at some point. i abused food when i was younger i used it to sooth me and all my life i sought something to sooth and make me feel like i belonged and was wanted. if not the food than it was money than it was men than drugs. Now it is well LIFE I have finally figured out that in order to get that feeling i craved from the age of 6 I only had to be nurtured and loved and taught to love myself. Sadly i did not get that at home and i sought it in all the wrong ways. I am grown now and finally am happy with ME sadly it took me many years of crap to get to where I needed to be. Someday I would love to write a book.
The fact remains though once you do a drug like cocaine or Heroin or Methamphetimine or PCP etc etc you will I can promise you at some point lose any choice you may have once had.
Oh and by the way heroin withdrawal (as can alcohol and others) can have some serious effects and can kill thank you.
I have had a friend try to kick cold turkey from a bad raw heroin habit. She ended up going into a seizure and banging her head and lapsing into a coma. So do not tell me that it does not and can not cause death. Had her neighbor not went to check in that night she would have died.
That was her saving grace. She got clean and went on to live a wonderful life for 6 whole years which is when AIDS took her away from us.
regarding this case I Pray that they get this woman treatment She obviously cares for the kid After all we have seen many that have just left the kids die and not give a damn.
However at the same time having seen many a woman go through situations like this and return to motherhood from treatment only to fall again and the child end up worse off the next trip I fear the what if’s So I pray that they do give rehab and give her parenting to go with it. I also hope they do some home visits afterwards to just be sure all is well.
I wish her luck with the battle it can be a hard one but that child is worth it