Doctors do not condone drug use during pregnancy. In fact, they stress the negative impact it can have on a child while still in the womb. It can cause birth defects, illness, and can even jeopardize your child’s life. This idea is so embedded in our subconscious that drugs and childbirth have become opposing entities, naturally. When one thinks cocaine, for instance, childbirth does not typically come to mind, and vice versa. For one woman, however, the two go hand in hand, a life decision that she’ll regret for the rest of her life for reasons other than the obvious.
Tabitha Leah Ritchie, 28, was arrested in a Colombia airport for attempting to smuggle two kilos (4.4 pounds) of cocaine in a false, latex belly that resembled a baby bump. An inspector pulled her aside after noting that her stomach was unusually hard and cold, symptoms not synonymous to pregnancy.
Ritchie allegedly reacted aggressively when asked how far into pregnancy she was, hurriedly trying to make her way onboard the aircraft. “[The Canadian] didn't like the question, which made the official suspicious. Instinctively, she [the official] then very delicately touched the lady's belly, realising it was too hard and extremely cold,” said Colonel Esteban Arias Melo, the deputy director of Colombia’s anti narcotics police.
Ritchie, a social worker native to Toronto, who had been in Colombia since August 6, was arrested and detained at the scene. Unfortunately, she missed her Air Canada flight back home, but that was the least of her worries. Her charges were not immediately clear or available. You can check out a video of the arrest below.
Cocaine and babies just don’t mix. And unfortunately, they never will.
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