B.C.'S ADDICTED BABIES HIGHLIGHT VIVIDLY THE DANGERS OF DRUGS

With an aging population and increasingly expensive medical
treatments, B.C. health-care costs continue to soar. One way to keep
them under control -- and raise our overall well-being -- is for each
of us to do everything in our power to remain as healthy as possible.

That doesn't mean living like a monk. It does mean controlling our
drug or alcohol use, especially if we're pregnant.

Now, we all know about how babies born to mothers who drink can
develop fetal alcohol syndrome, one of the leading causes of mental
and physical birth defects.

But a story by Province reporter Ethan Baron last week detailed how
more and more babies in Prince George are being exposed to drugs like
crack cocaine in the womb.

Last year, staff at the regional hospital there identified 43
drug-addicted babies, a tenfold increase in 10 years.

Hospital staff vice-president Dr. Marie Hay believes the real number
is higher, since doctors and nurses generally cannot test a baby for
possible drug exposure without the mother's permission.

As Baron notes, the problem is acute in the Lower Mainland, where one
facility treats more than 100 addicted pregnant women a year.

Drug exposure in the womb can lead to a range of disorders and put
children at higher risk of future addiction.

In other words, it's a vicious circle -- one that can only be broken
by a concentrated collective and individual effort to make our
province far less drug-dependent.