Drug Abuse

Two former Philadelphia police officers who are expected to be key witnesses in the government's case against six former members of an elite police drug unit testified yesterday that they had used drugs while assigned to the drug squad. Former squad member Leo Ryan admitted that he had used Valium in 1983 while a member of the unit known as Five Squad, and former police officer Charles A. Hund 3d testified that he had used cocaine, marijuana and barbiturates while a member. Both former officers testified, during a pretrial hearing in federal court to determine the admissibility of government tapes in the case, that they had stopped using drugs when they agreed to cooperate with the government in May 1987.

Start early, be strict. These were the messages of a conference on drug and alcohol abuse in New Jersey held yesterday at the Special Services School in Mount Holly. The conference, organized by Burlington County and various anti-drug organizations from throughout the state, featured about 360 educators, law enforcement officials, students and community activists from around the state. Most of the speakers agreed that it was almost impossible to end the drug problem by locking up pushers.

The clouds of blue balloons that floated into the sky above the Torresdale Boys' Club had a message printed on them for young people everywhere - "Say no to drugs. " The hundreds of balloons launched by the children, parents and coaches who are members of the Torresdale Boys' Club was the finale to an afternoon program designed to warn children about the perils of drug abuse. Speeches and presentations were made and questions were answered during the hourlong program arranged by the Mothers' Club organization of the Boys' Club.

New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards visited Woodstown High School yesterday to talk about drug abuse. He came armed with statistics on student drug use and general drug arrests, and he preached about how drug sellers care only about profits and nothing about the lives their merchandise ruins. But it was what Edwards did not say that explained the personal motivation behind his appearance. In kicking off the school's anti-drug campaign, New Jersey's highest law enforcement officer did not tell students about the time, when he was in seventh grade, that he found a friend dead in a bathtub from a drug overdose.

Six NFL players who were suspended for violating the league's substance- abuse policy were reinstated yesterday by the league. But Seattle Seahawks cornerback Terry Taylor yesterday was suspended by the NFL for violating the policy - the 10th player to be punished this year. Taylor, a first-round draft choice in 1984 out of Southern Illinois, has been a starter for the last three seasons and was scheduled to start Sunday's season opener in Denver. He will miss the team's first four games and will be eligible to return for the Oct. 2 game against Atlanta.

The NFL is investigating Washington Redskins defensive end Dexter Manley for suspected substance abuse and may take disciplinary action this season against the all-pro lineman, sources said in a Washington Post report today. Manley, 30, who has been one of the best players on the defense since joining the Redskins in 1981, spent a month during the spring of 1987 in the Hazelden Foundation, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Center City, Minn. He said he was treated for alcohol abuse.

When it comes to the problem of alcohol and drug addiction in the workplace, some businesses say it's cheaper to help than to hire. That's the point of "The Employee's Road to Recovery," the title of an all-day seminar Thursday at Eagleville Hospital in Eagleville. "Would you fire an employee because he had cancer?" asked Ross DeSimone, substance abuse programming director for Integra Inc. Alcohol and drug addictions are diseases, too, and most of the time the people who have problems are valuable employees, he said.

Just when fresh evidence shows the number of hard-core drug abusers growing, a federal panel has concluded that drug-abuse education and training in medical schools is "markedly deficient. " In a report to the Public Health Service, a high-level medical panel concluded this month that doctors frequently are prejudiced against drug abusers, whom they view as difficult patients. Doctors also fail to focus on the special problems of minorities and youth, populations that appear especially vulnerable to drug abuse, according to the report.

White House officials insisted yesterday that fighting illicit drugs is still a "number-one priority" for President Reagan despite a proposed $915 million cutback in funding for 1988. On the defensive after bipartisan congressional charges that Reagan was scaling back his anti-drug commitment, the officials said the President must weigh the legal requirement for trimming federal budget deficits against public and congressional pressure to do more to curb drug abuse. In his proposed budget for fiscal 1988, which begins on Oct. 1, 1987, Reagan calls for total spending authority of $3.016 billion for drug programs.

It may be only a local scrimmage in the national war on drugs, but the West Chester teachers union and West Chester Area School District officials agree that the district's new employee drug- and substance-abuse policy is a good idea. And the West Chester Area School District, which adopted its Monday, is not alone in its policymaking. Employee drug- and substance-abuse programs and policies have found support throughout the county. Generally, officials and teachers say it is a good idea.