Virtually every day, readers, listeners and viewers of the latest news accounts are updated about arrests, court cases and prison sentences tied to the use or sale of illegal substances — plus, on some days, provided reports about overdose deaths associated with those substances.

Too infrequently, however, are there reports about the tiny victims of illegal drug use, despite there being many.

Last Monday, the Wall Street Journal became the latest media outlet to tackle that horrific circumstance, and the picture that the Journal painted was not pretty.

The article, on the newspaper’s U.S. News page, began: “Thousands of babies are born each year to mothers who are using opioids. The newborns enter the world in withdrawal — some fussy and sweating, others struggling to feed. The treatment, until recently, was to separate the babies from their mothers, start them on morphine, and keep them isolated for days or weeks of intensive care. Now doctors have a new treatment: Mom.”

What the article went on to say was that doctors and researchers now are encouraging parents to soothe their newborns as they shed their dependence on opioids — and use morphine as a last resort.

If the sought-after result can be achieved without drugs and without overstressing or otherwise harming an addicted baby, that indeed should be regarded as the better option, provided that the mother truly is committed and capable of doing what is necessary on her part.

Meanwhile, according to the Journal’s report, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the World Health Organization recommend treatment medications over detoxification for pregnant women addicted to opioids, because quitting increases the risk of relapse and deadly overdoses.

Too infrequently the topic of addicted babies and the withdrawal process they are forced to endure gets the public attention that the topic merits.

Instead, it is the drug crimes themselves and the punishment meted out by the courts that take center stage while the little ones suffer, obviously not knowing why they are suffering and not realizing the irresponsibility of the person responsible.

Perhaps sometime in their lives some of that information will become available to them and, unfortunately, it must be feared that the “drug problem” of their infancy might contribute to illegal drug use in their later years.

The 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found nearly 8% of pregnant women among the 60,000 respondents overall had used illicit drugs in the past month and some 1% of pregnant women had taken illicit opioids.

No baby child entering this world deserves such a terrible greeting.