Alarming growth of KY drug-addicted newborns

A recent report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association says the number of Kentucky newborns hospitalized for drug addiction passed on from their mothers has soared over the last decade.  The study links the rise to the prescription pill epidemic in the Commonwealth, where hospitalizations for addicted newborns climbed from 29 in 2000 to 730 last year.  The report says the national rates more than doubled over the same period.  State officials and doctors say statistics include newborn withdrawals from all types of drugs, but they also blame prescription pills for the dramatic increase.  Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes says the problem is a silent epidemic.