VETERAN ROCK STAR SHARES DRUG AWARENESS

Rock legend David Crosby didn't sing a note, but received a standing
ovation when he walked to the microphone Friday night. He got another
standing ovation when he sat down after describing his long, strange and
often harrowing trip with drugs.

Crosby, a native of Santa Barbara who now lives in the Santa Ynez
Valley, took time out from touring with his group, CPR, to speak at the
fifth-year anniversary graduation ceremony of Santa Maria's Substance
Abuse Treatment Court, better known as drug court. It was the 12th class
to graduate.

The singer talked candidly about his own trip into drugs, a long journey
that started with "smoking a little pot" and ended with a stint in a
Texas prison.

The event, held at the St. Joseph High School gym, honored 18 graduates
who had participated in the intensive 18-month program. Some 300 persons
attended.

Crosby told about his drug use, with audience members cheering,
obviously understanding the experiences he survived. And he explained he
had the money to keep using drugs, unlike other people who run out of
money and their habit "comes to a screeching halt.

"That didn't happen to me," he said.

Crosby also got a break from well-meaning law enforcement officers "who
let me slide," telling him to go home, he said.

"I was pretty crazy," he said, talking about the paranoia that results
from drugs that make people do a lot of strange things. "You know, "the
bush people,'" he said, a joke that brought laughter from only the part
of the crowd who had recovered from drugs.

Texas lawmen did not let Crosby slide, and he was forced to kick heroin,
cocaine and alcohol in a jail cell, without the kind of assistance that
drug court offers.

"I saw a lot of stuff" in jail, he said, leading to a decision that
music was more important to him than drugs.

Getting free of drugs is the "hardest thing I have ever done," Crosby
repeated several times. But the time and effort is worth "getting your
life back."

Crosby said this is only the first step, the opening of the door of
opportunity. And he reminded those in the program "you will only get
this opportunity once."

"Do some deep searching ... soul searching ... find out why" the use of
drugs came about, he said, because it will help keep the door open.

Crosby strongly supports the idea of drug court, calling it far better
than "throwing someone in jail to learn to be a better criminal."

He wants those who have beaten drugs to "make a difference in other
people's lives," simply by the examples they show. Be good husbands and
wives, love your children, do normal stuff, show up for work and be
successful again," Crosby said.

"I really love to see you win," he said, because "it is good to feel
good about yourself."

For 20 years Crosby said he was unhappy, scared, sick or paranoid, or
too stoned to care. Now he calls himself a happy guy who has found the
door open and walked through the shaft of light.

Several of the 18 graduates from the program spoke. One speaker had been
trying to succeed in the program for three years.

They talked of the love of their parents, clutched children returned by
the court and shed tears of joy. The program and all those who have
created it also received praise and thanks.

More than one of the graduates said they never believed they could do
it.

"I was a mess ... people really do care about you ... it opened up a
large door for me," said one of the graduates.

"I was like a plane with no control that was going to crash, put I
pulled up and survived," another said.

A third told the crowd "if you want to do it you can. Stick with it."