Darryl Strawberry's other stats

New York Yankee Darryl Strawberry was suspended last week from Major
League Baseball for one year after testing positive for cocaine. The
suspension is his third in five years due to drug use. Talk at the
water cooler found few sympathetic voices: "It's about time," said
many of baseball's disillusioned fans. Strawberry is still on
probation after pleading no contest to cocaine possession after an
arrest last year in Tampa.

His inability to shake drugs despite the best help money can buy gives
us reason to consider the vice grip of addiction:

Age group with highest rate of cocaine use: 18- to 25-year-olds Age at
which Strawberry first went to rehab center: 28

Number of Americans last year who used cocaine for the first time:
730,000

Number of Americans who use cocaine now: 1.8-million As percentage of
population: Less than 1 As percentage of population during peak use in
1985: 3

Men who relapse within six months after hospitalization for cocaine
addiction: 75 percent

Women who relapse within six months after hospitalization for cocaine
addiction: 50 percent

Number of times a cocaine high is likely to exceed the rush felt the
first time: 0

Number of minutes a cocaine high lasts: 5 to 20

Number of days Strawberry suspended by league due to third drug
violation: 365

Number of days Pinellas County student expelled by school after third
drug violation: 90 to 180

Number of years drug use nationally has declined or stayed the same
for eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders: 3

Percentage of young people in 1996 who named a sports figure as their
role model: 12

Percentage of young people last year who named a sports figure as
their role model: 9

Of 1,000 people tested in a week by the four-county Operation PAR
toxicology laboratory, number that will test positive for drugs: 200

Of the 200, number that will test positive for cocaine:
50

Number that tested positive for cocaine Tuesday, a day after Darryl
Strawberry was suspended for testing positive: 10

Percentage of eighth-graders (13- and 14-year-olds) reporting crack
use at least once in their lives: 3.2

Percentage of high school seniors reporting cocaine use in the past
month: 2

Amount the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services budgeted for
fiscal year 1999 on youth-focused anti-drug efforts:
$441-million

Amount of payroll for the New York Yankees' 2000 season:
$93-million

Amount Southside Boys & Girls Club in St. Petersburg hoped to raise
with Strawberry as the (since replaced) host of a March fund-raiser:
$25,000

Annual salary for Strawberry with Los Angeles Dodgers in 1990:
$4-million Annual salary for Strawberry with New York Yankees in 2000,
after three cocaine suspensions and other legal difficulties: $750,000

Annual salary (average) for major leaguers in 2000 with the same
seniority: $2-million

Percentage of all employees who use drugs: 12

Percentage that insurance coverage for treating drug abuse has been
reduced over the past 10 years: 74.5

Percentage of drug users who hold full-time jobs: 70

Percentage of time in an average game that designated hitter
Strawberry plays: 8 * NOTE: Statistics are most recent available and
pulled from figures for the past three calendar years.

Sources: American Society of Addiction
Medicine; National Institute on Drug Abuse;
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services; Operation PAR; Office of National
Drug Control Policy; National Clearinghouse
for Alcohol and Drug Information; the Zandl
Group trends research firm; Institute for a
Drug-Free Workplace; Star-Ledger of Newark,
N.J.; St. Petersburg Times.