Remodeled Drug Center Shows Off

A drug treatment center for teen-agers in Lake View Terrace welcomed the public for the first time Thursday at an open house that featured tours conducted by student-residents, a lunch buffet and a visit from Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

Phoenix Academy at Lake View Terrace, bitterly opposed by some community groups when it was proposed eight years ago, showed off its gleaming, landscaped facility on 15 acres at the former Lake View Terrace Medical Center on Eldridge Avenue.

Visitors said they were impressed with both the program and the condition of the building, abandoned years ago when the medical center declared bankruptcy. The Phoenix House Foundation, a New York-based drug treatment program, purchased the property with the goal of establishing its California operations headquarters there.

“I had no idea of the scope of this,” said Harry Hughes, a member of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce, after he received a tour from Phoenix House residents Tara Milich, 17, and Tom Stephenson, 17, two of the academy’s 50 live-in students.

Visibly moved by the presentation of the articulate, congenial guides, Hughes remarked: “I’m glad this is here. I’m glad the kids have this--it seems to have given them such an opportunity. It gives you insight into how valuable the life of a human being is.”

Tara is one of Phoenix Academy’s success stories.

At 15, Tara said, she was popping amphetamines, smoking pot, drinking and hanging out with a heavy-metal band in Hollywood. After a drug test, school officials and Tara’s mother decided to enter her in the Phoenix Academy program.

Tara recalled how she first felt about going there: “I was very arrogant to the lady interviewing me. She said ‘You can’t smoke here or wear makeup or jewelry.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah right--I don’t listen to my mom, much less you.’ My friends threw me a big going-away party the night before I left. We all got high. My mom couldn’t stop me. No one could really stop me.”

Once she entered the academy, the positive message, the structured daily assignments and regular therapy sessions with her family helped her deal with her feelings. She became interested in academics and now attends a public high school, but still lives at the academy.

Tara took reporters and others on a tour of the first floor of the building, showing neat, dormitory-style rooms, a small cafeteria where residents eat every meal together, a common area with television and fitness equipment and classrooms.

A parent of one of the academy’s new residents, who asked that her name not be used, said her daughter is struggling with the dramatic change in her environment: “She’s telling me it’s dangerous for her to be here,” the parent said.

“But I’m not buying it. A lot of programs say a lot of things, but this one here--it seems to be able to deliver.”