Today on The Current we take you to Northern Ontario, to hear from a remarkable young voice, with a story of euphoric escape, despair, desperation and addiction to OxyContin.

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Today's guest host was Mike Finnerty in Montreal.

Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Friday, January 6th.

US officials said Iran's recent military posturing and threats are a 'symptom of weakness.'

Currently, Iran officials tell U.S. officials to take that back or they'll nuke them... Or they would. If they had nukes. Which they don't.

This is The Current.

OxyContin Addiction (Pt 1) - Doris Slipperjack

Doctors and nurses in some northern Ontario communities say they know there's trouble when they hear a newborn's cry. Ones that come at a certain pitch: the high, urgent scream of a baby born with an addiction inherited from within its mother's womb.... an addiction to OxyContin. And those high pitched screams are becoming more common.

Barb Linkewich is a registered nurse and vice-president of health services at the health centre in Sioux Lookout, in northern Ontario. As she says, a new McMaster University study found nearly 1 in 5 babies there are born exposed to OxyContin, a prescription narcotic from the same family as morphine, codeine and heroin.

Frightened, unhealthy babies are just one symptom. To pay for the drugs, crime is on the rise. Grocery stores seem strangely well stocked -- because so many people are using their money to buy pills instead of food. Other research estimates as many as 75-percent of adults in the community of Fort Hope use OxyContin, including young mothers and pregnant women.

Doris Slipperjack is a twenty-two year old Aboriginal mother of three. She's in treatment for her OxyContin addiction. She joined us from Fort Hope, in northern Ontario.

Other segments from today's show:

• OxyContin Addiction in Northern Ontario (Pt 2)
• A Covert War with Iran