More babies being born to drug addict mothers

Too many babies born are going home to live in environments
characterized by drug use.' Joyce Bernstein, an epidemiologist for
Toronto's Department of Public Health

By Dale Anne Freed, Toronto Star Staff Reporter

The number of Metro babies with serious health problems born to drug
addicted mothers has risen ninefold over a 10year period, a new
report shows.

In 1996, 99 infants were born in Metro hospitals with drugrelated
problems up from just 11 in 1986 according to the report, released
yesterday.

The report was done jointly by Toronto public health officials and the
Addiction Research Foundation.

``It indicates how many women are caught up in drug addiction,'' said
Joyce Bernstein, an epidemiologist for Toronto's Department of Public
Health and coauthor of the report.

Such women are often afraid to seek help for fear their children will
be taken away, she said.

``There's a lot of fear . . . They're afraid of child protection
authorities.''

Seventyseven of the 99 babies had traces of drugs most often
cocaine or heroin in their systems, Bernstein said. Eighteen had
symptoms of withdrawal and four were suffering from fetal alcohol
syndrome.

``The big picture . . . (is) too many babies born are going home to
live in environments characterized by drug use,'' she said.

However, ``there are virtually no treatment centres in Metro with day
care,'' Bernstein said, and better outreach programs are needed.

Some drug users who went to hospital emergency departments reported
that ``they are often made to feel like dirt . . . worthless.''

There should be a recovered druguser, hired by an innercity
hospital, to mediate between users and medical staff in the emergency
department, Bernstein said.

The study showed that Metro has about 14,000 heroinusers, but drug
use in Metro is ``relatively lower than in other North American
cities.''

And deaths from heroin are on the decline in Metro, according to
police statistics. That's likely due to a drop in purity and
therefore, strength of the street drug.

Metro police report that the street heroin they seized last year was
53 per cent pure, ``down from 72 per cent in 1994,'' Bernstein said.

The Ontario chief coroner's office reports that 45 people in Metro
died with heroin in their systems in 1995, a sharp decline from the 67
who died such deaths in 1994. ``And it's the first drop in this
category since 1991,'' Bernstein said.

Cocaine-related deaths were also down to 23 in 1995 from 39 in 1992.
Cocaine addicts are usually in their late 20s to early 30s, one expert
said.

Eighty per cent of those who suffer heroinrelated deaths are men,
with an average age of 39.

However, a rising number of heroin addicts are seeking methadone
treatment, said Ed Adlaf, a scientist at the Research Addiction
Foundation and coauthor of the study.

He said more heroin users were slotted in for treatment after an
expansion of the methadone treatment system occurred last July when
Ontario's College of Physicians and Surgeons took over its
administration. It was previously a federally controlled system.