ESCAPING DRUGS' SHADOW IS A STRUGGLE

His vision of reporters was of a pack of hounds scurrying around for any
hint of scandal. In the wake of so many public disgraces going around, it
is a private one most on my mind.

The latest public scandal involved Gary Barczak, the Milwaukee County clerk
of circuit court, who pleaded guilty to drug charges in front of a
community where almost everybody knows his name.

And don't forget our president, Bill Clinton, seemingly always just steps
away from smearing his historic legacy on account of private demons that
apparently drive him over the edge into recklessness.

But the situation I'm thinking about belongs to a friend I had not seen in
a while before last month's phone call.

What he wanted was advice. Recently chosen to fill a challenging new
position in Milwaukee, he wasn't feeling much satisfaction.

All he felt was dread. The fear of being found out.

"I had a problem," is the way he put it.

The problem was crack cocaine, same as Barczak. But instead of winding up
on the embarrassing side of a sting operation, he managed to overcome his
addiction quietly with the help of a drug rehabilitation program.

His problem with crack came at a low point in his life, professionally and
personally. During the time he was using, like all addicts, he spent time
with unsavory types, the kind of people with an interest in keeping him
hooked along with them.

Now that he was clean and headed down a new path, his biggest anxiety came
from knowing, somewhere out there, his former drug buddies might betray him.

"I just want to know, in regards to my job, should I be worried about this?"

His confession surprised me, although it shouldn't have.

As I've written in this space before, so many friends and family members of
mine have been overcome by this insidious form of 'pure' cocaine, I should
know by now no one is immune to this drug.

He was seeking my advice as a journalist, but also as a friend. This is
what I told him:

Despite your job, you still have a right to privacy. During your sojourn
into the world of illegal drug use, you were never arrested or charged with
possession, so there is no criminal record to be revealed.

>From a journalistic perspective, as long as you don't relapse, get
arrested or charged with drug possession, there is no news angle here.

He seemed surprised at my opinion. Like most people, I think his vision of
reporters was of a pack of hounds scurrying around for any hint of scandal,
ready to embarrass and harass good people out of their careers.

The truth is there are whispers about lots of prominent people in Milwaukee
concerning drug use and other behavior. Usually, there has to be an angle,
preferably a legal one, for the media to pursue a story.

Barczak would not be front page news if he hadn't been arrested. Clinton's
troubles are connected more to a suspicion of perjury than an affair with a
White House intern.

Frankly, my friend is not that big a name in town yet. If he continues his
good work and raises his profile, his dark past might become something that
needed to be addressed.

For now, I told him, it didn't seem newsworthy.

His sigh of relief was palatable over the phone; I could tell this had been
haunting him.

His last worry: What about all the people I used to get high with? What if
one of them tries to expose me?

This time, the answer was not based on journalistic ethics. I just told him
what my mother used to tell me, a long time ago.

If you are really worried about someone seeing you do something you're
ashamed of, don't do it.