Pubdate: Sat, 18 May 2002
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily 
home delivery circulation area.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

BITS AND PIECES - FIRST'S TROUBLES

The Forsyth Initiative for Residential Self-help Treatment (FIRST) has had 
a history of difficulty since it opened in Winston-Salem in 1991. The 
problems continue, as its founder and president, Mary Hogden, has been 
fired, and now a report of inappropriate spending at FIRST has surfaced.

What should not be lost in all this turmoil is the fact that the program 
does not receive public money and has, despite it all, been highly 
successful in helping recovering drug and alcohol abusers to learn trades 
and lead productive lives. FIRST now has operations in Winston-Salem, Black 
Mountain, Wilmington and Whiteville.

FIRST's administrators may not always have run as tight a financial ship as 
they should have, but they ran a good program, one that is well worth saving.

[Remainder of article discussing several other short items of local 
interest unrelated to drug policy or each other, per the column headline, 
snipped]
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MAP posted-by: Jackl