FOR ATHLETES, NAMES HAVE CHANGED, BUT DRUG PROBLEMS REMAIN

Drugs in sports -- the phrase could have been considered redundant for so
many years. The wild parties and women; steroid-exploding arms, legs and
chests; amphetamines to get athletes up, quaaludes to bring them down;
ingest a few lines of coke, and they're indestructible; finally, smoke a
couple of joints just to chill.

It's all there. Unfortunately, drugs have been part of the landscape with
variations of all of the above and more for generations. So where does that
leave us today? CBS SportsLine's staff of writers scoured the countryside
from middle schools through the professional sports, and the conclusions
remain fuzzy.

Indeed, the drugs are still there -- starting when athletes are younger and
staying around when they're older. Testing for drugs is erratic as well,
with the exorbitant expense and the legal issues of privacy still in the
way. But our conclusions are obvious. The addictions remain, on different
levels.

ALCOHOL ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND always will be the drug of choice, if only
because of its legal accessibility that unequivocally deems it socially
acceptable. But creeping out of the weeds, so to speak, is marijuana --
with a generation of baby-boomers watching it become legal in some places
for some medical reasons after it spent their high school and college days
as the illegal partner for alcohol. Consequently, the NBA is working on a
new collective bargaining agreement, with marijuana now undoubtedly to be
addressed ... and alcohol abuse not far behind.

Recent reports have as many as 70 percent of NBA players using marijuana.
NBA commissioner David Stern wants to lead the way in changing its status
among players he believes should be role models. There have been plenty of
substantiated arrests, and the most disturbing problem at the moment is
Atlanta Hawks forward Greg Anderson's alleged involvement in a cocaine
distribution ring.

"It's not a right to play in the NBA and other professional sports, it's a
privilege," Stern said. "We spend a fair amount of time creating mythology
in sports. When they talk, others listen to them. I think responsibility
comes with that, and that includes drugs. Anyone who denies that is denying
the very obvious.

"In 1983, 70 percent of the NBA players used cocaine, and marijuana wasn't
on the radar screen. Marijuana is something society has struggled with and,
in some jurisdictions, decriminalized. For us, there was the more important
issue of the epidemic of crack and cocaine sweeping the country. If, in
fact, marijuana is a problem in society, sports has the opportunity to lead
rather than to hide."

In the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the amphetamine regime was in
full force. Some say it still is, particularly in baseball. But the major
leagues don't test for drugs. The NBA and NFL have testing they announce.
In the NHL, alcohol is the dominant substance on ice.

Meanwhile, because of its sheer size, the NCAA tests regularly but only
gets to about 10 percent of its athletes, out of 200,000-300,000. Many are
in their first experience away from home, and it's a recipe for failure.

Yes, it's up to individuals to police themselves, but the governing bodies
still have to take an active role.

"Sure, baseball players are a lot cleaner than they used to be," said
Dickie Noles, a former alcohol and cocaine abuser during his 10-year
major-league career. "They make a lot more money now, and they need to
protect their brain and body to protect that investment."

But in the next breath, Noles says there is much work left.

"Baseball hasn't done the job they should. They don't want to recognize
substance abuse. It costs money for these teams to enforce it the way they
need to."

LIKE THOSE FROM SO MANY OTHER walks of life, they're mired in denial. The
NFL has suffered through continuing cocaine problems as well ... featuring
the likes of Bam Morris most recently. You talk to a former abuser such as
former Dallas Cowboy linebacker Hollywood Henderson or former NBA player
and coach John Lucas, now in charge of the aftercare programs for the NBA
and NFL, and you get the feeling more could (or should) be done.

"Curiosity killed the cat, man," Henderson said of why NFL players don't
seem to learn from their predecessors' mistakes. "Athletes see themselves
as being bullet-proof. But you know what? They're not. Everybody has one
little heart, one little liver, an esophagus, a pancreas ... we're all
built the same. We're all human."

Some more than others -- with steroids still a leading concern in the NFL.
But Lucas says the new dangerous addiction as this century rolls to a close
among athletes is sex. Although athletes as sexual predators with groupies
is hardly a revelation, the AIDS epidemic continues to fester. Highlighted
by Magic Johnson's announcement that he was HIV-positive in 1991, a new era
of danger has evolved.

Whereas it appears steroids use is decreasing at the high school level, we
found a scary development in its allure for kids in the early teens and
younger, before they reach high school age. This is partly a byproduct of
the prototypically obnoxious Little League parent -- the one who finds
steroids to transform Little Johnny into Big Bad John.

The parties have begun earlier, and beer is as lethal as any drug -- when
it's in the hands of kids who get behind the wheel of a car. Old story, new
kids and cars. It's still there, and there seems little that parents and
friends are doing about it.

IN THE NHL, THE STORY of Chicago's Bob Probert and his nasty battle with
cocaine earlier in the decade, has calmed. Marriage, children and
confidence from the organization appear to have settled Probert into a more
staid existence.

But as drugs have been all but put on ice, what about excessive alcohol?
There are those who believe the hockey players are the most devout of
drinkers. To wit: the destruction of the rooms at Nagano that so
embarrassed the United States and the NHL during the 1998 Winter Olympics.

We watch what's happening on the golf courses of our country and just know
they can't be drug addicts, if only because golf requires such a
consistency of nerves and focus, with no outlet like the other contact
sports.

"What do you want to do ..." veteran Nick Price asks, "take an amphetamine
before you hit your drive, and then take a downer before you putt?"

But old traditions die hard, like the proverbial 19th hole. Alcohol and
golf are a tradition. Few have been as public with their problems as John
Daly, but it's there. Tom Watson's 30-years-plus relationship with his wife
just ended -- and not coincidentally, that stunner caused him to go on the
wagon (his father a recovering alcoholic).

The key here is nobody is immune to the problems of drugs and alcohol. Some
of the responsibility lies within the various governing bodies to monitor
their athletes. As for the middle school, high school and even some college
athletes, have the parents let go of their children too soon?

But most of all, it comes down to the individuals themselves and taking
responsibility for their actions and the ramifications of those actions on
others.

Over the next five days, CBS SportsLine will examine these scenarios and
arrive at some conclusions, while leaving the rest up to the readers. If
nothing else, it has been and will be a sobering experience

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)