Parents Drugged Kids for Years With 'Alice in Wonderland' Bag of Opiates

The parents of three children may be facing jail time after treating the kids with excessive doses of strong, prescription-only opioid pain medication for nearly eight years.

The anonymous couple, from Perth, Australia, pleaded guilty to three charges of "engaging in conduct that was reckless and may have resulted in the child suffering." The children were under the influence of these drugs for large proportions of their lives, ABC News Australia reported.

The mother was allegedly told at least once to stop giving the drugs to her daughter, and in 2020, a doctor saw the mother injecting her daughter with a drug from what she referred to as the "Alice in Wonderland bag."

The doctor then reported the incident to the police.

"The children pretty much slept most of the time," Judge Carmel Barbagallo said. "These children were totally in need, totally vulnerable; they pretty much slept through years of their life.

"These young children, for years, have been disabled further...because they've basically been made comatose with drugs."

The daughter of the couple was dosed with the drugs between the ages of seven and 14, while her two brothers were dosed between five and 11, and nine and 11, respectively. The children had been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is an inheritable condition that affects the connective tissue of the body, including the skin, tendons, blood vessels and ligaments. Symptoms of the disease include joint hypermobility; loose, painful joints; bruising easily; digestive issues; dizziness; and fatigue. The condition can cause long-term, chronic pain in those suffering, especially in joints and muscles.

The parents made the children believe that they were in severe pain due to their condition, and administered them doses of opiate painkillers that were excessive, and not actually prescribed to them in some cases.

"The most obvious risk of giving children opiate medication is of them developing a physical and psychological dependency on the medication," Ian Hamilton, an associate professor in addiction at the University of York in the U.K., told Newsweek. "This means that any missed doses or a reduction in dose could trigger significant withdrawal symptoms, which to the untrained eye may appear as an illness. The other health risk is of respiratory depression, opiates suppress breathing so ensuring a safe dose is given is critical -- this is particularly risky if parents without any medical training are administering these types of medications."

"It is possible that some parents will continue giving painkillers to their children as a way of managing their behavior in addition to thinking they are doing the right thing in controlling any pain they have," Hamilton said. "The problem is that opiates are not an effective way of managing pain as tolerance to this type of medication builds quickly meaning higher doses are needed to achieve any benefit. However higher doses increase the risk of adverse effects such as breathing difficulties."

The mother also suffered from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and therefore was dosing her children in line with her own experiences with the condition, the mother's lawyer, Andrew Hoare, said in a statement.

"She has lived with it and lived with it with the use of painkillers, and she's transferred that onto her child," Hoare said. "It was my client's personal experience with pain and not wishing that on her children."

During the period of their dosages with the painkillers, all three children were wheelchair-bound, home-schooled, and were addicted to the painkillers. Now, however, the children can walk unassisted, play sports regularly, do not take any pain medication, and attend school, prosecutor Paul Usher said.

The three children were removed from the care of their parents. Their parents were still able to have contact with them, but often the children chose not to attend.

Usually, offenses of this nature result in immediate jail time in Australia. The couple will be sentenced in late February.

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