DRUGS, DENIAL: YES, THEY HAPPEN HERE

When you live in a community that seems close to paradise, sometimes it is
denial that makes things manageable and keeps everyone happy.

Here in La Canada Flintridge, with our excellent schools, strong community
organization structure, safe streets, beautiful houses and neighbors who
care, it is easy to be lulled into a state of idyllic wonderment.

But what happens when reality strikes.

It struck Jeff Cox sharply four years ago, the night after he had been out
to dinner with his wife, Evelyn, to celebrate his birthday. He was sound
asleep at 3 a.m. when he got the call.

"We've arrested your son," the deputy said. "Possession of drugs and
narcotics and being under the influence. We need you to come to Crescenta
Valley Sheriff's Station to pick him up."

This was the moment that was never going to happen.

Cox, who grew up in La Canada Flintridge, had sworn that if his son, Matt,
ever was arrested, he would remain in jail. But now, the 1996 arrest of the
La Canada High School junior came almost as a relief. Instead, Cox went to
the station and picked up his son.

For Jeff Cox, it was a confirmation of Matt's addiction, which he had been
denying for years. For Matt, it was not only the culmination of a day spent
selling 56 hits of LSD at about $5 each, but the start of a clean, new life.

The 16-year-old boy had been selling LSD from the guest house of a friend
on Richmond Road. It was 2 a.m. when the boys decided to take a walk up
Meadow Grove. And 2 a.m. when Dep. Rick Momet and several other sheriff's
department cars moved in like sheepdogs and rounded up the teenagers. In
Matt's pockets was $280 in cash and 15 tabs of LSD.

"Word was spreading fast that day," the young Cox recalled. "People were
calling constantly. LSD is a strong drug; kids want it."

Cox's comments shock the sensibilities of La Canada Flintridge parents, who
can't imagine drug or alcohol abuse at a school full of such
wholesome-looking, high-achieving students. Drug and alcohol abuse also is
a topic sheriff's deputies discuss reluctantly.

Sheriff's Dep. Dave Willard, who with Momet had worked at the high school
for about five years, shies away from the subject. He said newspaper
headlines referring to a "drug problem" at the high school were misleading,
and explains that La Canada's "drug situation" is minimal compared to other
campuses.

At La Canada High School, there is a no-tolerance drug policy. The campus
always follows the State of California Education Code. "If you get caught
at school under the influence of, or selling, we are going to proceed with
the expulsion process," said Hope Ricewasser, assistant principal of
attendance and discipline.

Yet a 1998-99 survey conducted at the high school showed that 41 percent of
11th-graders said they had tried marijuana, 73 percent had consumed alcohol
and 10 percent had tried inhalants. And so far this year, with the holidays
still to come, Crescenta Valley sheriff's deputies have arrested 34
juveniles for marijuana possession and five others for drugs including LSD,
cocaine, and methamphetamine.

Confronting affluent and successful parents with their child's substance
abuse is a responsibility that could be explosive in a tradition-bound and
judgmental community where City Hall insiders have described residents as
"perfectionists ... who are all chiefs and no Indians."

It is a matter to be handled delicately.

"I knew about Matt," Ricewasser said.

Ricewasser, who has close and confidential relationships with many
students, explains: "I hear everything ... Students tell me things ... and
as I'm walking through campus, or at the football games, you hear things
and you start putting pieces together and maybe observe," she said.

"If you hear the same rumor a few times, there's usually fire where there's
smoke."

Working with the students and their parents sometimes helps keep a
condition from accelerating. Usually, Ricewasser is able to call the
parents and tell them when there are rumors.

What do parents do then.

There are three reactions, Ricewasser said.

"Some do not necessarily reveal that they are aware of the situation, but
they thank me and say they'll follow up. There are no more rumors about
their children.

"A second type of reaction comes from parents who say, 'Thank you very much
for telling me, but I'm sure that this is not happening.'

"And the third type -- now, I don't want to sound critical because it's so
difficult when it is your own child -- but some parents are in denial. They
simply say, 'Absolutely not. My son or daughter does not, nor would they
ever, use drugs. And I would know if they did.' Some get nasty and very
upset. But I do not accuse. We are both on the same side. It is for their
benefit that I make that call."

Crescenta Valley Narcotics Det. Sgt. Daniel Edginton, who has been in the
sheriff's department since 1973, can tell you about that subtle razor's
slice of denial, which he also explains as "caring adults who choose not to
see faults in their children." He can speak from personal experience. He
was 35, and a qualified drug expert witness for federal court, when he
missed the signs in his own teenaged son.

"I knew what the symptoms were," he said. "I testified about them in court
every day."

To be sure, there is nothing more devastating to a parent than to discover
that the silver and china are missing, or to live with a chilling,
inexplicable fear instead of an explanation of what happened. To know that
the CD boom box from last Christmas and the new bicycle are gone, but not
to allow yourself to understand what really happened to them.

When reality crashed through the denial of Jeff Cox, son Matt was in the
final throes of a four-year addiction that had started in seventh grade,
when he began drinking his parents' liquor to help him handle adolescent
problems.

For months -- no, years -- his parents said they had no idea.

"By the time he was a junior, I knew that he was experimenting with drugs,
but I'd thought he was going to live through it," his father explained. "I
just didn't know how bad it was."