VOLUNTEERS WAGING WAR ON DRUG ABUSE CALL IT QUITS

Volunteer Anti-Drug Organization CAID Calling It Quits

A grass-roots, volunteer organization that fought the spread of
illegal drugs is shutting down after seven years of picketing,
lobbying and countless late-night interventions trying to persuade one
hazed teenager after another to get treatment.

"I'm burned out. My family's burned out. That's the bottom line," said
Rocco S. Crescenzi, a co-founder and president of Citizens against
Illegal Drugs. "I can't go out anymore at three in the morning and
talk kids down from a high."

Founded in March 1998, the organization made its moniker, CAID,
well-known in the community when members picketed in front of
suspected illegal drug houses and legal head shops, which sell
paraphernalia, such as papers, pipes and bongs, labeled for tobacco
use but often used to smoke illegal drugs.

In 2000, CAID switched its focus to education and interventions. It
set up a hot line, provided free of charge by STAT Communications, 121
Franklin St., for people to call if they needed help for themselves or
a family member. That hot line got as many as 150 calls a year. The
telecommunications company also set up a tip line on CAID's behalf,
where neighborhood watch groups could report suspected drug activity
and pass that information along to law enforcement officials.

"They have been helpful to law enforcement in a number of ways,"
Jefferson County District Attorney Cindy F. Intschert said. "I think
they've been a tremendous community resource, and they'll be missed."

The group didn't offer professional counseling or drug rehabilitation
services, nor was it government financed.

It was simply a group of people who offered them selves as a first
step for drug addicts or their relatives to seek help from others who
know what they' re dealing with, said Mr. Crescenzi, who faced drug
problems in his family.

The hot line was shut down April 15 and Mr. Crescenzi has been
referring people to Jefferson County's professional drug treatment
programs, Credo Community Center, or The Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Council.

We could not have been successful without organizations like ASAC and
Credo," he said.

On too many late nights and early mornings for him to count, Mr.
Crescenzi found himself in someone's living room telling a shaking,
sweating, crying 15 year old kid that he had to get to a hospital and
start a treatment program to get off drugs.

He said Credo and ASAC often couldn't help because those organizations
are bound to rules that, if not followed to the letter, could result
in revoked funding.

So Mr. Crescenzi, not bound by any government funding, bent the rules.
When the rules wouldn't bend he broke them.

"They said alcohol had to be the main problem" to admit someone at
hospitals and some treatment centers, he said. "So we lied. We said
these kids had alcohol problems, even though 90 percent of them didn't
have an alcohol addiction, just so we could get them into a bed."

"Whatever it took to get them into treatment, we did it," he said. "We
broke the rules. We probably misused the system. Was it right? All I
know is that we were able to get kids treated."

The organization relied on free or reduced-rate services, and
donations from organizations and businesses such as Watertown Savings
Bank, Mr. Crescenzi said.

But the majority of the group's funding came from Paul A. Simmons,
owner of Aamco Transmissions, and a founding member of CAID, Mr.
Crescenzi said.

"Whenever we needed something, Paul was there to cut a check," he
said.

James W. Fraser, also a founding member, served as chairman of CAID's
board of directors.

"We has a long, arduous experience with it," Mr. Fraser said. "I think
we helped a lot of people and learned a lot about the community and
it's problems with drugs."

"My feelings are tough on this one, letting CAID go," said Mr.
Simmons. "But personally, I have a feeling of accomplishment."

Mr. Crescenzi said that what he learned most in his seven years
serving as a self-appointed drug counselor was that parents are the
most important element in keeping kids off drugs.

"We love our kids. So what happens is we make excuses whenever they
steal from us or we find drugs in their room," he said. "Keep an open
communication with your kids. If their afraid to talk to you, you're
never going to know what their doing."