Dan Cain of the Eden Programs says while it is possible to stay off crack cocaine, he acknowledges crack is seductive -- it gives users temporary pleasure, but long term, it destroys nerve endings that deaden pleasure centers in the brain.

"We define addiction as a love affair with a drug. People describe cocaine as a sense of craving. If you compare it to a love affair, it's an infatuation as an adolescent who's hanging onto a horrible relationship because they don't think they'll ever get another one."

For people who want to get off drugs, there are few residential treatment centers in Minnesota which will admit parents with children. That often means parents must choose between getting help for their addictions and remaining with their children.

Minneapolis-based Turning Point is one of a handful of treatment centers that allows mothers undergoing treatment to live with up to two children.

One of its residents is Marie, a nurse who's addicted to crack and has a six month old girl. Marie is optimistic she can kick her crack habit but she wonders whether she and other women are set up to fail. She's doing well in treatment but she worries about what happens when she leaves turning point.

"Environment is number one. It may mean getting all new friends, not seeing some of your family members. Treatment is fine but I think they should provide more housing when we walk out of here so we don't have to go back into the old neighborhoods. So what happens we're back in the same neighborhood seeing some of the same people and then we start associating with those same faces again."

Turning Point's founder Peter Hayden strongly objects to speeding up the process of terminating parental rights. He says just because a court terminates a parent's rights doesn't mean the bond between parent and child disappears.

"Do they think we're a bunch of animals? Do they think poor people are animals and don't have a maternal and paternal base with their parents? Do you think you can just come in and your parents weren't this...and we're just going to put you over here. It's not going to work because it's not a humanistic quality. I don't know who MY father is but I still want to know who he is."

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