Drug Rehabilitation Programs

If Mimi Silbert were to run a classified ad for her new Los Angeles venture, it might read, "Wanted: A few bad men and women." Silbert is the head of San Francisco's acclaimed Delancey Street Foundation, an enterprise grounded in the principle that drug addicts and ex-convicts can turn their lives around if they want to. The foundation bought the defunct Midtown Hilton on Vermont Avenue near the Hollywood Freeway earlier this year and will reopen it today as Delancey Street Los Angeles.

Darryl Strawberry, on the verge of being released after failing to show for up for Sunday's game, told Dodger officials Monday that he has a drug and alcohol problem and will enter a substance abuse treatment center today. In an emotional meeting in Los Angeles, Strawberry asked the Dodgers for help in seeking treatment, and the Dodgers responded positively, said Bob Shapiro, Strawberry's attorney.

The reception for the lavish Malibu resort lacked only one thing: cocktails. It was not forgetfulness on the part of the hosts but a deliberate omission--this was a party to celebrate a new drug and alcohol rehabilitation center billed as the most luxurious of its kind. And on Friday about 150 guests came to schmooze on the expansive lawn overlooking the ocean.

Sounding more like a motivational speaker than a Municipal Court judge, Gregory H. Lewis looked around Department 101 in Orange County Superior Court one day this month, smiled and said to a room filled with about 100 people: "I like to see your faces! There's a lot of energy flowing." This is no ordinary day in Lewis' court.

Deborah Neroes held out her hand, waiting for a verdict. Sharon Obeck, a media training consultant, clasped it and shook hello. "Your hand is limp, telling me you're not interested," Obeck said. Neroes stepped back, took a deep breath and tried again. "Much better," Obeck said. "Now I know you're serious." For Neroes, a crack addict for 17 years, now sober for 128 days, this training session wasn't just about the first handshake in a job interview.

In Los Feliz, as many as 55 recovering drug addicts and alcoholics are living in a single home, some packed 10 to a room, others squeezed into attic crawl spaces or closets. In South-Central Los Angeles, men struggling to stay off drugs surrender their welfare checks to sleep on plywood pallets in bare cubicles with exposed wiring. And on a shady street in Van Nuys, women seek shelter in the home of a therapist who has been accused of demanding sexual favors from female tenants.

Saying "I think I'm having a little deja vu, " a federal bankruptcy judge Thursday approved the sale of Lake View Medical Center for $3.2 million to a group that wants to establish an adolescent drug rehabilitation center there. Phoenix House, the largest private nonprofit drug abuse agency in the nation, first tried to buy the 15-acre Lake View Terrace property in 1989, with the intention of creating the Nancy Reagan Center.

A controversial Arizona law that diverts nonviolent drug offenders from prison and into one of the nation's most sweeping drug treatment programs has registered remarkable early successes, according to a report scheduled to be released today by the Arizona Supreme Court. More than three-quarters of the 2,622 offenders who completed the program tested negative for drugs, the report said.

The toughest quarterback in the NFL sadly admitted Tuesday that he has not done it alone. Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers said he will enter an unnamed facility for the treatment of an addiction to painkillers. Favre, the league's most valuable player last season, said he will remain in the facility, "for as long as it takes to get better." "This is kind of a difficult time . . . because . . .

For nearly 20 years, Antigua has offered guitar legend Eric Clapton a refuge from the rhythmic highs and drug-induced blues of his rock stardom. Antiguans have embraced him, giving him privacy and peace through two decades that have seen him grow from addict to advocate to, just maybe, the Betty Ford of the next century. Now Clapton is repaying Antigua for its kindness--and sacrificing some of his treasured privacy.