Drug Users Rock On in This League

When baseball star Darryl Strawberry was caught doing drugs, he was sus pended, sent to rehab and finally reinstated with the provision that he’d be subject to drug testing. When he relapsed last year, he was released by the San Francisco Giants, who had given him a shot after he was dropped by the Dodgers early in the 1994 season.

That’s the way it works in professional sports.

After rock star Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots was arrested and charged with alleged cocaine and heroin possession near Pasadena early Monday morning, there was never any suggestion of Atlantic Records’ suspending him or dropping his popular band.

That’s the way it works in rock ‘n’ roll.

It’s not just Atlantic. A survey of other major labels indicates that none of them has any set policies or contract stipulations regarding drug use among their artists.

Would it help if they did?

“If there were record companies willing to do that, it could have an impact,” says Dr. George Blair, a psychiatrist who works with recovering addicts at the Exodus facility based at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Marina del Rey. The clinic has regularly treated pop music figures, including Kurt Cobain, who fled Exodus just days before committing suicide last year.

But, Blair adds, there is virtually no way for the music industry to institute and enforce drug policies the way sports organizations can.

“We don’t have a league,” concurs Bob Merlis, senior vice president of media relations for Warner Bros. Records. “And that’s a good thing. If it would help people come to grips with their abuse problems to get kicked off a label, that would be great. But it’s completely phantasmagorical to apply sports leagues’ standards to this realm.”

And unless the whole industry agreed to the same policy--which, several executives note, would probably violate restraint of trade statutes--enforcement would be virtually impossible.

“If someone did drop an artist, there would always be another label here to pick them up, no matter how messed up they were, as long as they thought they could sell records,” says Susan Silver, who manages Soundgarden and Alice in Chains (whose singer Layne Staley has acknowledged battling substance abuse problems in the past).

Blair notes that several major labels do step in to help addicted artists get help, though by the time the problem is apparent the addiction is usually extremely serious and difficult to treat.

“The real problem is you’re dealing with creative people and a lifestyle that’s very conducive to drug-taking, given the hours and travel and people they’re surrounded with,” Blair says. “We’ve had several success stories, but we’ve had many who are not.”