NEWPORT BEACH : Drug Plague Has No Bias, Vereen Says

In an hourlong anti-drug speech sometimes delivered in the manner of a church sermon, entertainer Ben Vereen told 600 Newport Harbor High School students Wednesday of his personal battle with narcotics and urged them to reject media “hype” that drugs victimize only minorities.

“I’m here talking with you today because I don’t want you to believe the hype,” the 44-year-old actor/dancer/singer said. “This is not a black or Hispanic thing. And I worry about you because we’re not hearing about your (white) community enough.”

Vereen, best known for his role in the 1977 TV miniseries “Roots” and his Tony award-winning performance in the Broadway musical “Pippin,” lectured students in Santa Ana and Newport Beach as founder of Celebrities for a Drug-Free America, a 2-year-old organization that enlists the help of popular figures--also including Louis Gossett Jr., Michael Jordan and Liza Minnelli--to spread the anti-drug message.

Vereen, who also visited Saddleback High School in Santa Ana on Wednesday, told the assembly that his own drug use set his career back because “people don’t want to deal with someone who’s irresponsible.”

Having spent enough money on drugs “to buy Peru,” Vereen said his personal life and career hit bottom four years ago, when his 16-year-old daughter died in a car accident.

Vereen added that his battle against drugs and coping with the death of his daughter, who would have been 20 this week, caused him to seek spiritual salvation. He opened the speech by acknowledging God “as the center of my life and the universe” and told students that their personal contributions can change America’s course.

“God makes no mistakes,” he said. “Each one of you is a miracle. . . . When someone dies on drugs, we’ll never have the blessings of those dreams ever again. Enough blood has been shed. Enough time has been wasted.”

Dressed in a school sweat shirt that students gave him before the assembly, Vereen told the group that media stories often highlight blacks’ and Latinos’ roles when reporting on the perils of drug use, often overlooking the affluent.

He shared a story about one of his three daughters, then in grade school, returning to their Malibu home and telling him that officials had found cocaine in school lockers. The same day, a story about an 11-year-old inner-city boy who had been arrested for distributing cocaine at school was national news.

“Yet, you never heard anything about the affluent community,” Vereen said. “It’s like a quiet time bomb.”