STRAWBERRY TYPICAL ADDICT, EXPERTS SAY

TAMPA - Apart From His Celebrity Status, Darryl Strawberry Is a Common
Example of a Drug Addict Facing a Justice System

A stellar career. An addiction to drugs. A terrible tumble from grace.

What has happened to former baseball star Darryl Strawberry isn't
unusual, say those who work in the trenches trying to help addicts
reclaim their lives.

``It goes on more often than we know. Darryl has just been very `media
present,' '' says Gabe Sanchez, admissions counselor at Fairwinds
Treatment Center in Clearwater.

In fact, not only has Strawberry's deterioration been a textbook case,
say drug abuse experts, but so has the Tampa native's string of second
chances in the criminal justice system.

``Darryl Strawberry got no special treatment, yet every single day
people are talking like he has,'' says Robin Piper, chief executive of
the Turning Point of Tampa treatment facility.

A judge is expected to decide today whether to send Strawberry to prison
for the first time in light of his fifth probation violation.

Piper says she has seen plenty of clients elude jail despite repeated
probation violations. And that's OK, she contends, because barring a
serious crime, they don't belong behind bars.

``They are only hurting themselves, their families and their employers -
not society,'' she says. ``The justice system is not set up to handle
drug addicts. It's set up to handle criminals.

``If you're an addict and you commit murder or armed robbery, then, I'm
sorry, you should go to jail.''

About 14.8 million Americans were ``current users of illicit drugs'' in
1999, with about 3.5 million of them ``dependent,'' according to the
latest report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The NIDA, which
surveyed Americans 12 and older, defined current users as those who had
used an illegal drug at least once within the past month.

The FBI reports more than 1.5 million mostly state and local arrests for
drug-abuse violations in 1999. More than four-fifths of those arrests
were for possession, not for dealing or other crimes.

In Hillsborough County, 4,254 felony drug cases were filed last year and
1,206 were filed this year through April 30, according to the Clerk of
Court.

Sanchez says addicts who otherwise stay clear of the law are caught
typically after being pulled over while driving under the influence or
after causing disturbances at home or work.

``A lot try to write their own prescriptions to a pharmacy and get
busted that way,'' he says.

Addiction recovery is slow going, and the NIDA reports most users
relapse multiple times before managing to stay clean for long stretches.

At Tampa Bay area hospitals, users who come for help commonly receive
emergency treatment and information about rehabilitation programs - but
are not turned over to law enforcement.

Increasingly, Sanchez says, members of the upper-middle class find
themselves among the ranks of hard-core addicts with more ``socially
acceptable'' drugs: prescription medications and designer narcotics.
Celebrity addicts such as Strawberry make up only a small percentage,
however.

``If anything,'' says Piper, ``what Darryl has done is bring this to
light. Now the whole world is seeing what usually only the family
sees.''