Strawberry needs drug treatment, not prison, experts say

Some worry public sentiment may work against him as people ask why he gets multiple chances.

By KATHRYN WEXLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 8, 2001

TAMPA -- To many people, Darryl Strawberry has become a symbol of self-indulgence.

He is the man who rose from South Central Los Angeles to become a millionaire ballplayer and then fell to the ranks of a common drug addict.

When Strawberry turned up Monday at Tampa's St. Joseph's Hospital, he had just failed in his fourth chance to adhere to a drug treatment program and stay out of prison. The Hollywood story of his early years has turned to Shakespearean tragedy.

"Does one feel sorry for Hamlet because there was so much potential there and it's going to waste, or does one say, "Why didn't you get off your backside and act quicker and not allow this to build to this point?' " said William Heim, a University of South Florida professor of English. "I suppose you could transpose that to Darryl Strawberry as well."

Callers to talk radio say the courts' handling of Strawberry since he was caught in 1999 with a prostitute and some cocaine illustrates that judges go soft on celebrities and hard on the anonymous. Prosecutors are once again calling for Strawberry to be sent to prison.

"Certainly, there's a great amount of public sentiment that this is a moral issue and a huge belief that a person can quit using if they want to quit using," said Hillsborough Circuit Judge Donald Evans of the drug court division.

Yet, to health care professionals, Darryl Strawberry isn't a paradigm of anything but illness.

"What I hear people say is that he's getting away with leniency because he's famous, that if it were you or me, we'd be in prison," said Kay Doughty, a clinical director for DACCO, the local drug treatment centers.

"And that's not true in Hillsborough County," she said.

Meting out punishment or rehabilitation is a decision judges say they make on a case-by-case basis. There is no threshold number of drug offenses that mandate incarceration, said Judge Evans.

"If a person is making a major effort, I will continue to work with that person," Evans said. "But when someone demonstrates by leaving treatment, violating probation or indicating they are either unwilling or unable to comply with supervision, the only thing left to do is send that person to prison."

Like alcoholics who used to be jailed until they sobered up, drug addicts for years were viewed as suffering solely from ethical lapses. The medical community didn't know what to make of them, much less the courts.

"Physicians just hated drug addicts and alcoholics," said Martha Brown, who teaches psychology at the University of South Florida.

More recently, researchers have sought to prove that addiction can be as much a physical dependency as an emotional one. Studies show evidence that the brain is altered by alcohol and drug abuse, say medical professionals. There are even efforts to create a vaccine against cocaine addiction.

"We think of it as much as a disease as diabetes or heart disease," Brown said. "It has a basic, progressive course without treatment. It's not a lack of willpower, not about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps."

Health professionals have come to understand the reoccurring nature of the illness, Doughty said. "It's the same thing when you go on a diet and lose weight and gain it back again."

Increasingly, courts are being created that deal solely with drug offenses. Hillsborough County's drug court division was one of the earliest ones in Florida when it was installed in 1996. At the time, about 40 percent of the county's criminal defendants were diverted to that division, designed to get drug abusers help, said former Chief Judge Dennis Alvarez.

"The main thing is to push these addicts to get treatment," Alvarez said. And it appears to be working. Recidivism rates for non-violent drug-using criminals sentenced to drug treatment programs is reportedly much lower than those sent to prison. Citrus and Pinellas counties also use drug court. Hernando is about to create one.

It was back when Strawberry had just joined the major leagues that two veteran teammates introduced him to cocaine, he told Sports Illustrated in 1995.

"There's a couple of lines in the bathroom for you, kid," he remembers them saying. "This is the big leagues. This is what you do in the big leagues. Go ahead. It's good for you."

In the years since, Strawberry's alcohol and drug use have become notorious. That he was able to stay clean for five months recently speaks of his resolve to kick the addiction, Doughty said. Still, his battle with colon cancer and need for chemotherapy likely makes it harder, she said.

"He might not see any light at the end of the tunnel," Doughty said. And though some are suspicious that Strawberry's fame has worked in his favor, she said, public scrutiny of the case could ultimately work against him.

"I think it could pressure a judge," to impose prison time, Doughty said, when that may not be the best route.

Said Richie Bly, Strawberry's longtime agent in the 1980s, "I think they should look at this individual as sick. That's what he is. It's tragic."

-- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

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