Couple Pursue ‘Visions for Recovery’

THOUSAND OAKS —  Leonard and Debbie Goldberg’s dream is to have a foundation like the American Heart Assn. or the American Cancer Society for recovering drug addicts.

The couple have sunk $150,000 of their life savings into making it happen. Four years into it, they have little to show for their efforts, but that doesn’t mean they are giving up.

Driven by a passion derived from personal grief, the Goldbergs want to set up a program to provide inpatient drug rehabilitation for youngsters outside the juvenile justice system who lack health insurance.

“No one raises money for alcohol and drug abuse like groups do for cancer and heart disease,” Leonard Goldberg said. “That’s what we’ll do.”

Sitting in their Thousand Oaks condominium--which doubles as the office for their nonprofit group, Visions for Recovery--they talked about what got them here.

Eight years ago, a family counselor told Debbie Goldberg her 17-year-old daughter was drinking several bottles of beer a day. Goldberg said she knew her daughter’s attitude had changed and that her grades had slipped.

Six weeks before the youngster’s 18th birthday, Goldberg checked her into a Port Hueneme in-patient drug program while she still legally could.

She said it was the hardest thing she ever had to do.

“When we were at intake, she turned to me and said, ‘How could you do this to me?’ ” Debbie Goldberg said.

“I put her there. Part of me knew this was the right thing. But part of me was saying, maybe I’ll find out she really doesn’t have a problem.”

As soon as her daughter turned 18, however, she checked herself out. The young woman drifted in and out of rehab programs, but she never moved home again. The two don’t speak now.

“I detached from her, hoping it would mean something to her,” Goldberg said. “I loved her. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t stand around and watch her die.”

Debbie Goldberg says her daughter--now 25--still has a drug problem. But her daughter, who holds a steady job, disagrees.

“I don’t think I was an addict,” said the daughter, who asked not to be identified. “I was a high school student who smoked some pot, nothing more at the time.”

It was that experience that convinced Debbie, and her second husband Leonard, to transform their pain into productivity.

Although drug use among Ventura County teenagers is increasing, officials say, only one six-bed treatment unit is available for girls, none for boys.

Resources are so scarce that young people who don’t go to jail have virtually no access to treatment, authorities say.

The Goldbergs decided they would devote their lives to helping young people, particularly those without health insurance, get access to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Debbie Goldberg, 48, quit her job as a paralegal in 1993. She and Leonard--a 66-year-old retired salesman--got degrees at Oxnard College in drug and alcohol abuse prevention.

They took classes at UCLA on fund-raising and became licensed drug counselors. They learned how to start a foundation. They established a board of directors and an advisory board that includes a judge, fire chief, probation officer and school official.

After a lot of work, they even got actor and Upper Ojai Valley resident Larry Hagman to be their celebrity spokesman.

Now they have come up with an idea they are convinced will jump-start their countywide campaign. They have joined forces with Children’s Alcohol Rehabilitation and Education, a private operator of group homes for young drug users who are wards of the court.

Together they want to start a camp for recovering adolescent drug addicts that would include detox, rehabilitation and schooling.

Because resources are scarce in Ventura County, virtually the only youth who get help with drug problems are those in trouble with the law, officials say. The Goldbergs want to extend those services to youngsters who are not wards of the court.

Under the proposed deal, they would raise $200,000 to buy a 150-acre camp and convert it into a 30-bed drug rehabilitation center for adolescents. The group-home operator would administer the services.

They hope to open the program by September.

“It would be an entire drug-free environment,” said Barry Boatman, administrator for the rehabilitation and education group. “One of the big problems, even for kids in residential treatment, is that when they go to school they can hit with drug and alcohol usage.”

The Goldbergs, who are writing grant proposals, are persuasive when they talk of the need.

So is Dr. Robert Fiorentine, director of research training at the UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center. He serves as an unpaid consultant to the Goldbergs.

“There is a tremendous need for adolescent drug treatment in this country,” said Fiorentine, who estimates there are about 36 inpatient detox programs for adolescents nationwide. “And there are very, very few programs.”

But he said the Goldbergs face an uphill battle. The system of drug treatment services in Ventura County is already established, he said, and can be hard to break into.

It also is difficult to raise money, he said.

“It’s not like kids with leukemia, where they break your heart,” he said. “We stigmatize the kids who use drugs. We want to punish them. That’s why I think adolescents are being ignored.”

Nevertheless, he thinks this is the Goldbergs’ most viable plan so far.

“With their persistence and tenaciousness I think they have as good a chance as anyone,” he said. “They’ve always had good ideas, and I think this is a really good idea.”

Even the Goldbergs’ daughter approves of what her parents are doing, though she feels her mother never understood her and broke up the family with her zealousness.

“I think it is a good thing; it really helps people,” she said. “I think her business is good; she claims it really makes her happy. But how can she be counseling people? Look at her own family.”

Debbie Goldberg concedes she does not know her daughter’s situation but is pleased about any progress she is making.

“She’s turning her life around and is heading in the right direction,” she said. “We want to help others through what we experienced.”