5 CHILDREN IN PROTECTIVE CUSTODY AFTER 4 TESTED POSITIVE FOR DRUGS
Five young children were taken into protective custody after four of them,
another child and an adult were found to have ingested morphine, officials
said Monday.

Although the remaining child in custody, a 6-year-old girl, did not have
morphine in her system, she was removed from the apartment the children
shared with five adults in the 9500 block of Bellaire. The children, two
boys and three girls, are ages 2 to 6.

Police believe the children received the narcotic at the home because an
adult there is prescribed morphine as part of cancer treatment.

The other child who tested positive, a 22-month-old boy, was returned to his
mother, a relative of the adults at the apartment but who does not live
there.

The case was brought to the attention of Harris County Children's Protective
Services on Oct. 4, when two of the children arrived at Texas Children's
Hospital with respiratory failure. Two days later, the other children were
hospitalized. All but one have been treated and released.

CPS spokeswoman Judy Hay said the mothers of the children in custody are
sisters. The police report said one mother who does not have cancer also
tested positive for morphine.

Hay said the children have been placed in foster care until the
investigation is complete.

"We think the children were being given the morphine," she said. "It was
just too many children over too long a time."

Hay said it appears the children ingested different amounts of morphine over
a period of time.

Checked-by: Don Beck