Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 9, 1995                   TAG: 9505090123
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

MOTHER GAVE HEROIN TO BABY, POLICE SAY

Jacqueline Rosetta Edwards told authorities she has been a heroin and cocaine addict for 12 years. She was charged with permitting serious injury to a minor child and forcibly administering heroin to a minor child, according to warrants.

She was jailed under $20,000 bond.

Sources told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the child possibly was born addicted to drugs, and that Edwards was advised by a friend that feeding the child a small amount of heroin by mouth might ease the child's suffering.

It's possible that the small doses of heroin might have saved the child's life, said Dr. Margaret Jarvis, faculty member of Medical College of Virginia's division of substance abuse medicine.

A baby born addicted to drugs - heroine, cocaine, pain pills - could go through withdrawal serious enough to cause death, Jarvis said.

- Associated Press