Protecting the Innocent –

January 10, 2020 – In addition to certifying the guardians as a class, the attorneys who filed the motion Tuesday want U.S. District Judge Dan Polster to create a national registry to identify children diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome, form a medical panel to recommend the best ways to treat such children, and provide money for those efforts as quickly as possible.

“The urgency of this is, the longer we wait, the more difficult it is to help these children,” said Cleveland attorney Marc Dann, who filed the motion along with attorneys from Texas and Louisiana.

A national registry would allow scientists to accumulate more data to refine how best to treat these children at each stage of their development, Dann said.

Research has found that children born dependent on opioids suffer from developmental delays, medical problems and are susceptible to becoming addicts themselves as they grow older, Dann said.

@NYTimes