Fatal Drug Habit Had Been Teen’s Well-Kept Secret

Brandon Balsiger-Post’s friends have a powerful message about growing up that they are spreading throughout south Orange County. If you are raising a teenage son or daughter, their words might surprise you.

Brandy, as he was known, was 21 when he died six years ago of cocaethylene poisoning--from a mix of cocaine and alcohol.

He came from an affluent Laguna Beach home with loving parents. Throughout his teens, he kept his cocaine and alcohol use well hidden from them. Now Cheryl and Carl Post have made young teens like their son the central cause in their lives.

They have created a nonprofit treatment and counseling center in Laguna Beach for adolescents with drug and alcohol problems. They’ve named it Brandy’s Friends.

To help educate others about their 5-year-old program, they’ve also made a videotape about their son. It’s not an easy 17 minutes to watch. You see Brandy’s world--one the Posts had no clue about--through the eyes of several of his peers.

The tape shows Brandy with his best friend, Bobby Brower, as youngsters with their skateboards. Later, they were cocaine buddies. Brower has since turned his own life around and is now a speaker for the center. He says on the tape:

“Brandy didn’t really start taking alcohol until he was in the eighth grade.” He speaks as if Brandy was a late bloomer.

A cousin, Jennifer Gibbs, who was close to Brandy’s age, says on the tape: “I knew that Brandy started drinking pretty much when we all did . . . seventh and eighth grade.” So matter-of-factly. Would you know that about your junior high youngster?

Bobby Brower: “It was like, we’ve already done the Disneylands and the beach parties. Now we were able to get a keg of beer.”

Jennifer Gibbs: “It wasn’t some big revelation, ‘Omigod, Brandy drinks.’ Everybody kind of was. In Laguna, everybody kind of starts young.”

How could the Posts have known? He was such a great son.

An only child, Brandy was devoted to his parents. He loved fishing and the beach and Little League baseball. His father, Carl, was his coach. From early on, Brandy took jobs to earn his own spending money. His room was filled with tennis, soccer and football trophies. At Laguna Beach High School, he won the most valuable player award for the freshman football team.

He began an investment portfolio on his own when he was 9 years old. When he died, it had grown to $8,000.

There was a sign early on--but truthfully, how many of us could have picked up on it? When Brandy was 15, he lost interest in sports. It was a signal his parents missed. Brandy’s interest had switched to cocaine.

Bobby Brower: “My first encounter with cocaine was with Brandy. . . . We never really had a problem coming up with the money. . . . I remember thinking: This is what it’s all about.”

It wasn’t until Brandy was 20 that the Posts learned their son used cocaine. He entered an outpatient program, but by then his addiction was overwhelming. He died the next year, after 11 days in a coma.

“We felt like we did everything right,” Cheryl Post says on that tape. “We played by the rule book. If we did this, this and this, we would have a wonderful, healthy child who would grow into a responsible adult. But that didn’t help him.”

The first six months after Brandy’s death, Carl Post says, “we couldn’t breathe. I kept asking myself why. Finally, I decided it was time to get off my butt and do something.”

That led to Brandy’s Friends.

Out-of-School School: Brandy’s Friends is run by Susan Jacob in clean, spacious facilities at 362 3rd St. in Laguna Beach. She’s spent her career in substance abuse rehabilitation. The center operates several treatment programs. Some involve working with the abuser and his or her family.

One program is called “Off Campus Suspension.” Students who are suspended for drugs or violence at area schools are often sent to Brandy’s Friends to serve their weeklong suspensions. So far, it’s been an even mix of boys and girls. Jacob not only deals with their substance abuse problems, she makes them do the homework they’d otherwise be missing.

Brandy’s Friends turns away nobody for lack of money. Though parents pay for the daytime counseling, it’s on a sliding-scale basis. Money is raised to provide what the Posts call “scholarships” for those who cannot afford the fees. Most counseling is five days a week.

Some abusers, Jacob said, are from dysfunctional families. But often they have good parents who are doing their best but are baffled that their children have substance abuse problems.

“Parents think that they are the only variables in their children’s lives,” she said. “But they are exposed to so much more beyond their families.”

The Money Issue: Brandy’s Friends is financed three ways: One-third from the clients’ families (often through insurance coverage), one-third through fund-raising and small grants, and one-third that Carl Post and his real estate partners cover out of their own pockets. The Posts hope to develop the fund-raising to the point where they can carry less on their own shoulders.

The center is sponsoring a fund-raising golf outing July 21 at El Niguel Country Club titled “Tee Off for Teens.” If you’d like to get involved, call (714) 497-3553.

Wrap-Up: Throughout the tape the Posts played for me, you can see pictures or videos of Brandy on happy occasions. But near its end, there is a series of chilling shots of Brandy in his hospital bed, just days before his death. They show him comatose, surrounded by a mass of tubes. I asked the Posts the circumstances that led them to take such pictures.

Cheryl Post said she took them for her son. He was in denial about how serious his condition was. “I wanted to show him later what drugs were doing to him,” she said.

Those deathbed pictures are directed at a different audience now. The Posts believe the message is working.

“We’re here to save lives,” Cheryl Post said. “I know we have already.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com