HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 94-4686, by Representatives Karahalios, Hansen, Anderson, Finkbeiner, Wood, Thibaudeau, Grant, Patterson, Shin, Campbell, Kremen, Dyer, Edmondson, Backlund, Brumsickle, Foreman, L. Thomas, Linville, H. Myers, Veloria, Caver, Peery, Kessler, R. Meyers, Zellinsky, L. Johnson, Silver, B. Thomas, Chandler, Stevens, Horn, Springer, Padden, Cooke, J. Kohl, Ogden, Brough, Conway, Talcott and Eide

               WHEREAS, Violence in our state and society is reaching epidemic proportions; and

               WHEREAS, It has been shown that this violence and abuse directly impacts the most vulnerable and innocent people in the state, the children; and

               WHEREAS, It is this cycle of violence and abuse that can also result in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and Fetal Alcohol-Affected Disorder, because some parents can abuse drugs and alcohol to try to escape from the pain and abuse they themselves suffered as a child; and

               WHEREAS, In some counties in Washington state there is a one-in-two-hundred incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol-Affected Disorder among first graders; and

               WHEREAS, In one month in the United States sixty thousand babies will be born of parents who have used one or more illicit drugs; and

               WHEREAS, This drug use can result in babies having low birth weight and a greater risk of facing lifelong disabilities; and

               WHEREAS, Up to sixty to eighty percent of chemically dependent parents have been sexually or physically abused themselves; and

               WHEREAS, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome once developed cannot be treated, but is a preventable syndrome; and

               WHEREAS, For the next two weeks the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation is presenting a poetry and photography exhibit in the capitol rotunda on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol-Affected Disorder;

               NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize the severity of the problem of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol-Affected Disorder and the cycle of violence and abuse tied to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol-Affected Disorder, and that the members of the House of Representatives endorse the activities of this two weeks of awareness presented by the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation to help combat this growing epidemic of cyclical abuse.

                                        I hereby certify this to be a true and correct copy of

                                  Resolution 4686 adopted by the House of Representatives

                                                                     January 31, 1994.

                                               ________________________________

                                                         Marilyn Showalter, Chief Clerk