1973 SPECIAL REPORT: "BABY JUNKIES"
“The Littlest Junkie” will be shown on WABC‐TV tonight at 7:30. Written and narrated by Geraldo Rivera, the newsman, the half‐hour “special report” is about heroin addiction in infants born of addicted mothers. It? is subtitled, with chilling irony, “A Children’s Story.”
Mr. Rivera supplies the grim basic statistics. Of the estimated, perhaps underestimated, 600,000 heroin addicts in the country, at least halt live in New York City.
“In 1966 about 300 addicted babies were born here. By 1972 it was around 1,500. Right now 1 out of every 40 babies born in city hospitals is born a heroin addict. And in some hospitals it is as high as 1 in 25,” Mr. Rivera says.
The program, produced by Mr. Rivera and Martin Berman, shows several metropolitan hospitals, and the opening scenes include the birth of a heroin‐addicted baby and its subsequent withdrawal convulsions. Most of “The Littlest Junkie” is a horror story. Viewers are warned at the beginning that it may not be for children and could be especially unpleasant for pregnant women.
Little or no sympathy is sought for adult addicts. Interviews with several‐ generally reflect their incomprehension, helplessness or ignorance. One social caseworker recounts instances of parents actually “shooting up” a baby to keep it quiet.
Most of the addicts seen on the programs are black, but Mr. Rivera stresses that the problem crosses racial, social and economic lines. He estimates that a total of 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the addicted infants are white, Puerto Rican or Oriental.
Concern is centered on the newborn infant, the “complëtely innocent addict.” Until recently, most went untreated and, 93 per cent died. Over 30 per cent still die. There are no, programs, Mr. Rivera charges, for following up the long‐term effects of addiction at birth. Programs for prenatal and post‐operative care are inadequate, one of the few exceptions being the constantry impoverished Odyssey, House.
The issue is complicated. An addict’s withdrawal during pregnancy might trigger withdrawal convulsion in the womb and the child could kick himself to death. As for methadone, a heroinsubstitute for addicts, Mr. Rivera notes that infant withdrawal from methadone could be even more severe than from heroin.
One professional observer says that the entire problem is more social than medical. Whatever the label, the prob, lem is graphically delineated “The Littlest Junkie.” Attention, quite obviously, must be paid.
Mr. Rivera’s presentation is succinctly straightforward and represents an encouraging retreat from some of the more emotional approaches he has peen taking recently on such subjects as old age and migrant workers. As an admitted “advocacy” journalist, Mr. Rivera tends toward social issues inherently charged with emotion. Those issues don’t, need repotorial tugging at the heartstrings. The viewer should remember the subject, not the reporter’s performance. Few viewers are likely to forget “The Littlest Junkie.”
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