The cocaine deaths of Len Bias and...

The cocaine deaths of Len Bias and Don Rogers have triggered inquiries to health officials from parents who are concerned about their youngsters’ use of the narcotic, a state drug officer said in Sacramento.

“If there can be any solace” in the deaths, “it is that . . . the myth of youthful invincibility to the deadly threat posed by cocaine and other drugs has been shattered,” said Chauncey L. Veatch III, director of the state’s Alcohol and Drug Programs Dept.

Veatch said hundreds of parents have telephoned his office since the death Friday of Rogers, a 23-year-old defensive back with the Cleveland Browns. “They’re asking, ‘What does this mean to my children?’ ” Veatch said.

Drug-abuse experts have sought to use Rogers’ death to send out messages of the deadly dangers of cocaine. But Rogers’ fiancee complained that too much focus had been put on the drug’s part in his death.

Leslie Nelson, 22, told the Sacramento Bee: “All the speculation about drugs makes it seem like he was a bad person. I don’t think justice has been done to him and the type of person he was.”

Nelson, who was to have married Rogers last Saturday, will attend his funeral in Sacramento today.