Deaths of Sports Stars Raise Awareness at Drug Centers

The cocaine-related deaths of sports stars Len Bias and Don Rogers are the No. 1 topic of conversation at Orange County drug abuse centers, officials said Monday.

“Their deaths are not in vain,” said David Naishtut, clinical director for Turning Point in Costa Mesa. “A lot of people who once thought cocaine was not physically addicting and that it was not going to kill anybody are becoming worried.

“People are in fact starting to say, ‘Watch out!’ ”

Bruce Robbins, director of Straight Talk Clinic in Cypress, said any positive impact from the deaths may not be felt among the ranks of chronic cocaine users. But, he added, “the middle-class users will feel it. You know, the casual users, especially among the jocks interested in athletics.”

The deaths, Robbins said, will help sensitize casual users and a lot of the older “experimenters” about the dangers of cocaine.

“You can’t ignore this. This is just real hard evidence about cocaine’s (deadliness),” he explained.

Rogers, 23, who was to have been married Saturday, died Friday of heart failure due to a cocaine overdose. He was a former UCLA star free safety who became a standout safety with the Cleveland Browns the past two football seasons.

Bias, 22, was a University of Maryland All-American basketball forward who died June 19. Two days before his death he was picked second in the National Basketball Assn. draft by the Boston Celtics. Bias died of cocaine intoxication after ingesting an unusually pure dose that stopped his heart.

Lisa Bensen, spokeswoman for the 1-800-COCAINE national hot line in New Jersey, said in a recent telephone interview that questions from concerned users all over the country about cocaine-related deaths have been inundating the hot line.

The hot line’s normal 1,200 daily telephone calls have gone up to 2,200 a day, she said. Before the deaths of Bias and Rogers, most of the inquiries dealt with the effects of “crack,” or smokable cocaine, which is almost pure cocaine, Bensen added.

Crack, also known as rock cocaine, is considered by health professionals to be the source of the fastest-growing--and potentially the most serious--drug epidemic in the nation.

“There is increasing concern about (cocaine) medical problems, physical effects and purity in growing numbers each day,” Bensen said, adding that most of the inquiries to counselors concern how big a dosage can cause death or heart stoppage.

For several years, Orange County health professionals have warned that cocaine addiction is reaching epidemic proportions. Last November, an Orange County clinical psychologist said 40% of all admissions to local chemical dependency programs were for cocaine addiction.

The epidemic stems partly from the widespread belief that cocaine provides a safe, non-addictive high, authorities have said. But that benign image is fading fast.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse last year declared cocaine to be a “powerfully addictive” substance, and researchers have linked its use to cardiac arrests, seizures, respiratory ailments and other serious health problems.

“It’s by and large the most addictive drug that we know of,” said Dr. Joseph Pursch, a noted psychiatrist in the drug abuse field now with Family Care Clinic in Santa Ana.

Pursch, who is the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council’s independent expert for alcohol and drugs, last week completed a round of drug testing for tennis players at Wimbledon. News of the two sports stars’ deaths spread quickly in Wimbledon, he said.

“The players were all talking about it, and they were visibly upset about it. But the tennis drug-testing program is the only one done in professional sports,” Pursch said.

In fact, Pursch described the testing as a “historic” program because it was initiated by players and was not attached to union bargaining conditions, as in other professional sports.

Pursch said it would be wishful thinking to believe that the deaths of Bias and Rogers and any further deaths would dramatically alter cocaine and other drug abuse. The hard-core addict, he said, is not going to change.

Impact on Middle Class

But the chief impact, he continued, will be on middle-class youths and their parents and on coaches who can help steer young people away from drugs.

“One of the problems with young kids,” Robbins said, “is that they believe that bad things happen to the other guy and that they are too smart, too hip and too cool to let the same thing happen to them.”

In addition to cocaine’s addictive power, Pursch said, it is considered by authorities to be a destructive and lethal drug.

“This is something new only to the lay public,” Pursch said. “If these two sports stars had been cab drivers, warehouse foremen or housewives, no one would have gone through the expense of finding out that they died of vast amounts of cocaine.

“They would have been written off as heart attack victims. Mere statistics in a hospital. But those of us in the field have known that people die like this everyday.”

Cocaine is now cheaper and more potent than it was several years ago, said Jeff Fortuna, a professor of health education at Cal State Long Beach and director of Orange-based Drug Education Consultants, which provides therapeutic services and drug prevention advice to hospitals, companies and schools.

“Before you could have bought an 18% cut (mixture) and now it’s around a 100% cut, which significantly increases a person’s metabolic rate,” Fortuna said.

While the recent deaths may have a positive short-term effect, not all health officials agree that the anti-drug fervor will last.

“It will scare some people, but it won’t have any lasting effect because you’re not getting at the real issues,” said Bert Simpson, Orange County Department of Education drug abuse coordinator.

Simpson said “Scared Straight,” a drug prevention program in the late 1970s which was criticized for its straight-forward approach, proved to be unsuccessful because it too provided an “immediate” answer.

“People don’t use drugs because others use them. They use drugs for their own personal reasons. You have to attack the cause,” Simpson said.