GROW-OP KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, STUDY FINDS

As the number of grow-ops, often inside suburban houses, began
multiplying in the early 2000s, child-welfare agencies did the natural
thing, taking children living in the homes away from their scofflaw
parents. A new study suggests that in some cases, the authorities
might have inadvertently done more harm than good.

Scientists at Motherisk, a research unit at Toronto's Hospital for
Sick Children, studied 75 children seized from parents operating
marijuana grow-ops, methamphetamine labs or facilities that made
cocaine or heroin. Although traces of the drugs were found in the hair
follicles of a third of the children, they actually had fewer health
problems on average than children in the general population, according
to the study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Dr. Gideon Koren, Motherisk's director, notes that taking a child away
from a welladapted family environment causes "fear, anxiety, confusion
and sadness." He does not suggest that such children should never be
removed from parents involved in criminal drug production and
trafficking. He does say, however, that the Children's Aid Society's
decision should be based on individual cases, considering all factors.

Safety issues may require the child be removed from the location of
drug production and the child may also need to be seized from the
parents for legal reasons. However, he said, there is no medical
justification to automatically separate them from their parents.

The study was proposed by the children's aid society and the local
police force in York Region, a Toronto suburb.

The society almost always took children from drug-producing homes but
since 2006 has adopted a more selective approach, it said in a statement.

In Alberta, the Drug Endangered Children Act enables authorities to
automatically seize children for up to two days.