PASSINGS

Robert J. Roberton; Leader in War on Drugs

Robert J. Roberton, 60, a leading figure in both the public and private sectors in the war on drugs. A clinical psychologist and psychiatric nurse, Roberton supervised drug addiction programs in British Columbia and the states of Washington and New Jersey and in 1971 was named chief of the treatment and rehabilitation section of the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1982 he was named to head the Division of Drug Programs in California and was at the forefront of studies to identify the “designer drugs,” the synthetics that were replacing natural narcotics. In 1985 he became a vice president of Behavioral Health Services Inc. In Torrance on Thursday of liver and kidney failure.