Drug Abuse

Re "O.C. Teen Drug Arrests Soar; Treatment Lags" (Sept. 11): Finally someone is paying attention to the teenage drug problem. As a society, we should prefer treatment and prevention to incarceration. Jail and prison are not the answer to drug abuse. My son did not have access to treatment programs as a teenager and is now serving a minimum 25 years to life under the three-strikes law as a non-violent offender. His third strike was for possession of $10 worth of cocaine.

Re "Teens' Abuse of Legal Drugs on the Rise" (Oct. 23): Is it any wonder that teenagers have found an alternative to the socially unacceptable use of illegal drugs and have turned instead to legal drugs? While America continues to wage a very public war against illegal drugs, we simultaneously promote the use of legal drugs as a panacea for all our afflictions. Prozac, touted as "the New Wonder Drug" throughout the 1990s, effectively distanced itself from the stigma attached to other psychotropic drugs and quickly achieved unprecedented public acceptance and popularity.

In reading your editorial ("A New Look at Drug Use," Aug. 2), I found at least one thing on which Rev. Jesse Jackson and I are in strong agreement: the need to adequately fund and creatively encourage the growth of prenatal and neonatal health care programs. Today America is paying a terrible price for failure to prevent a tragedy of truly epidemic dimension--substance abuse by pregnant women. The use of illegal drugs or abuse of alcohol during pregnancy causes cruel suffering and lasting impairment and damage to the hundreds of babies being born each day innocently addicted to drugs or alcohol.

A free guide of services, programs and organizations offering prevention and treatment of drug abuse is being offered by Glendale Drug Free in observance of national Red Ribbon Week, said Priscilla Mahnken, chairwoman of the local awareness campaign.

Whitney Houston admits she's abused drugs in the past but says she's gotten beyond that time through prayer. The Grammy-winning singer discusses her past, the pressures of stardom and her decade-long marriage to Bobby Brown in an interview with Diane Sawyer on "Primetime," scheduled to broadcast at 9 tonight on ABC. When Sawyer asks her, "Is it alcohol? Is it marijuana? Is it cocaine? Is it pills?" Houston responds, "It has been at times." "All?" Sawyer asks. "At times," Houston says. "Uh-hm."

San Diego city officials have suspended "several" firefighters without pay in connection with the continuing investigation of drug abuse in the department, City Manager John Lockwood said Wednesday. Lockwood declined to say how many firefighters were suspended, nor would he name the stations where they had been posted. They will remain off duty pending completion of the investigation by the San Diego Police Department, Lockwood said.

The special needs of disabled people who have alcohol and other drug addictions will be the topic of a community forum to be held at Saddleback College on Thursday. The informal discussion is designed to provide an opportunity for people with disabilities and service providers to identify the key issues related to disabilities and drug problems. The forum is part of the county's alcohol and drug abuse master planning effort, organizers said.