Drug Abuse

Emergency room cases related to cocaine dropped nearly 28 percent from 1989 to 1990, while all cases involving drug abuse declined just over 14 percent, according to federal estimates based on a survey of hospitals released yesterday. In the second half of last year, however, the steep decline in cocaine- abuse cases leveled off. Drug policy director Bob Martinez said this meant the war on drugs was "getting closer to bedrock" - the hard-core addicts who have not been reached by or affected by the "Just Say No" slogans and education campaigns.

In an attempt to be proactive toward the awareness and prevention of drug abuse, high school officials in February sent a letter to parents alerting them to the escalating use of drugs on campus and in the community. The resulting response of concerned parents will be addressed tonight at the high school by school officials, guidance counselors and police officers. Officials will give a synopsis of what's happening in the high school, discuss the signs of drug use, and probe the audience for solutions.

A study of drinking and drug use by Methacton students suggests that those who use alcohol or smoke marijuana often do so not at school but after school, at night with friends, at parties, and at home. That makes it a community problem, Methacton School District officials said. Accordingly, they invited parents and residents to a town meeting last night for a realistic look at the substance abuse documented in an October survey of all students in the fifth through 12th grades.

Salvatore Marchese completed treatment for heroin addiction, but his success was shortlived: An overdose left him dead in a car in Camden. The 2010 death of the 26-year-old Blackwood resident was part of a growing epidemic of heroin use and abuse of prescription pain killers in the suburbs, according to experts who met Tuesday. Members of a task force created by the governor held the last of several public hearings to study the problem and potential reforms. The concerns they heard included denials from insurance companies to pay for drug rehabilitation, and too few facilities to treat drug addiction.

Jorge Granados was a drug dealer-turned-drug addict who frequented Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1970s and early '80s. But since his return to Puerto Rico in 1984 and successful completion of a drug-rehabilitation program there, he said, he has stayed clean. Now a minister at the Spanish Lighthouse Church in Upland, Mr. Granados, 43, is trying to open a rehab center in Chester that would parallel the one that helped him. The Peniel Recovery Center on Parker Street has been in the works for two years, and with a little luck will admit two dozen male drug and alcohol addicts by the end of February.

It may not be marked on your 365-days-of-Dilbert calendar, but tomorrow is L. Ron Hubbard Day. And not just here in Philadelphia. Oh no, it is L. Ron Hubbard Day in more than 100 cities in America. You are searching your mind now, aren't you? Thinking back to high school history, back even further to seventh-grade civics class and that great ocean full of names and dates you were supposed to have committed to memory. Who was L. Ron Hubbard? A Yankee senator from the Reconstruction era?

Soon, drug addicts in this harborside city may not be sent to jail when they're arrested. Instead, some might go for acupuncture, tiny needles lancing their ears to ease their cravings. Or to faith counseling, with belief in an all-healing higher power offered as a means to escape addiction. Or to a special court that lets them avoid prison by submitting to high-supervision, high-intensity probation. These programs, some already begun, are part of an unusual social experiment being undertaken in Baltimore, one aimed not at winning the war on drugs but at forging a livable peace.

Harold Carmichael hung up his Eagles jersey eight years ago, but he still hears the roar of the crowd. The former NFL wide receiver no longer catches the spirals. He makes pitches to children about self-esteem and decision-making. "You've got to be careful," Carmichael told students at Log College Middle School in Warminster last Thursday. A soft-spoken man with an imposing 6-foot, 8-inch frame, Carmichael grabbed the attention of the 700 students. While he spoke briefly about his football career, Carmichael spent most of the hour warning students against drugs and alcohol abuse.

George W. Bush accused the Clinton-Gore administration yesterday of firing blanks in the war against drugs and proposed to increase spending by $2.8 billion over five years to curb illegal drug use, particularly among teens. "Unfortunately, in the last 7 1/2 years, fighting drug abuse has ceased to be a national priority," said the Republican presidential nominee. "Drug policy has been pursued without urgency, without energy, and without meaningful success. " His opponent, Democrat Al Gore, was in Florida, teaming up with running mate Joseph I. Lieberman at an outdoor rally of several thousand people at Orlando.

Kareem Brian Watts, the 13-year-old charged as an adult in the throat-slashing death of a Morrisville mother of three, comes from a troubled home, Bucks County authorities said yesterday. Drugs were commonplace, both parents have been in and out of prison, and the boy himself has had a brush with the law. On Monday night, when Darlyne Jules was stabbed more than 60 times, Janice Watts had left Kareem alone in their apartment across the street while she went out several times to buy crack cocaine, she told police.