First Lady Is Honored by Italian Drug Center : Restrains Tears After Speaking to Addicts

Nancy Reagan, choking back tears Friday at the end of a touching speech to a group of recovering Italian drug addicts, told them, in Italian, “I wish you well and thank you all.”

At the San Carlo Therapeutic Community, a drug rehabilitation center in a mountain villa donated by Pope John Paul II, the First Lady talked with 20 residents, most of them heroin addicts, and then received the center’s Progetto--Uomo (Project--Man) international award, named for the center’s program.

Only John Paul and Italian President Sandro Pertini have previously received the award. The gold statue was presented by Anna Craxi, wife of Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.

In a meticulously manicured garden full of flowers and tall trees, the American First Lady addressed the residents of the center, along with many former residents and parents of drug addicts, about her crusade against drug abuse. Her campaign crossed into the international arena when she and the President arrived earlier this week in Bonn, where he is attending a seven-nation economic summit.

“I want to talk to you today as I would talk to the young people of my own country--from the heart,” the First Lady told the recovering addicts.

“Even though I don’t know you individually, I know your stories and your pain. I am not clairvoyant. It’s just that the young people in America have already told me.

“Each of you has a little light inside. It’s your light. It burns only for you. Sometimes it glows brilliantly--remember those days? Sometimes it flickers. Sometimes it nearly goes out. And when it gets low, as much as your family and friends yearn to help it grow brighter, you must tend it yourself. That is why you are here, and it’s why I’m proud of you and why your family is proud.

“You took drugs because your heart beats for one reason or another. Because you wanted to belong. Because you tried to please but in some way couldn’t. Because you wanted something better for yourself but didn’t know how to achieve it. Those are wonderful qualities. Drugs just turned them inside out.

“The world needs your sensitivity. It needs you out there. And the main reason I came today was to tell you I believe in you and what you can accomplish. I don’t want to lose you to drugs. Not one of you.”

Italian Farewell

In the emotional end of her talk, Mrs. Reagan gave her best wishes and thanks to the addicts in Italian: “Voglio bene a tutti grazie (I wish you well and thank you all).”

Before the award ceremony, she met members of the center’s staff and presented the facility with a personal computer donated by the Hewlett-Packard Co.

“I’m glad I’m not growing up now,” the First Lady commented. “Those things are so complicated.”

Next, she sat and talked to 20 addicts, many of whom told her about themselves through an interpreter. A 25-year-old woman named Cincia said she had “shot up” heroin for five years and “quite simply I did not have the courage to live. Only with heroin was I able to be equal to others.

“I would like to thank you for being here,” Cincia went on, “because in this way I feel important. I feel I have proven myself before those who had given me up for lost.”

Begun by Catholic Priest

The villa is south of Rome at Castel Gandolfo, the official papal summer residence. The project was begun by Father Mario Picchi, a Catholic priest from northern Italy who started work in drug abuse in 1968.

Early Friday, the First Lady began her day by having coffee with Fiat auto company chairman Giovanni Agnelli. Before going to Castel Gandolfo, she had lunch with President Pertini at the Quirinale Palace, the president’s residence atop the highest of Rome’s seven hills.

She attended a dinner given in her honor Friday night by U.S. Ambassador to Italy Maxwell Rabb and his wife, Ruth, in the embassy residence.

She will have an audience with the Pope today, then will rejoin her husband in West Germany.