The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

INTRO

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. In the headlines this Wednesday, the House began final debate on contra aid. The first hurricane of the season headed toward the Gulf coast. And a Seattle suburb banned the sale of all over the counter drug capsules. We will have the details in our news summary in a moment. Robin?

ROBERT MacNEIL: After the news summary, our major focus is the cocaine death of basketball star Len Bias. We examine the medical dangers of cocaine, then the social fallout with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, White House expert Dr. Carlton Turner, and former pro football player Harmon Wages, who recently served a federal prison term for cocaine possession. Then part three in our special series on America's new immigrants -- tonight, a successful Mexican. New Summary

LEHRER: The House headed for still another showdown on contra aid -- the issue that won't go away. Final debate on President Reagan's $100 million request began late this afternoon. House Speaker Thomas O'Neill was among those predicting a close vote when it comes later tonight or tomorrow. There are deep divisions over aiding the contra effort against the government of Nicaragua, and they were evident on the House floor today.

Rep. EDWARD MARKEY (D) Massachusetts: The contras are not the freedom loving democrats which the President portrays in his speeches. Their leaders are in Miami, their bank accounts are in Switzerland, and their foot soldiers are swatting flies on camps in Honduras. And what we're going to be left with in another four or five years are 15,000 or 20,000 thugs armed to the teeth roaming throughout Central America with no support from the indigenous people down there -- in fact, wreaking terror and havoc upon this God forsaken country and their neighbors for a generation to come.

Rep. MICHAEL DeWINE (R) Ohio: The allegation has already been made on the floor today, and I'm sure will be made again later on, that $27 million in humanitarian aid that the United States has sent to Central America has not been accounted for. This is a bogus argument. That is not the -- the real question, Mr. Speaker, is whether or not we have received value for this money. That is the question. The evidence is clear that we have. We have been able to trace it with CIA reports and an elaborate system of vouchers which shows that the materials we have purchased with our money is arriving in Central America.

LEHRER: The House turned down contra aid in two prior votes on the issue within in the last year.

Also today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ordered a staff investigation of charges the contra guerrillas were involved in drug trafficking, arms sales and corruption. Committee chairman, Senator Richard Lugar, said the staff is to complete its work by mid-July, so the full committee can decide whether there is enough merit to the charges to broaden the investigation. Robin?

MacNEIL: On the Gulf Coast today, hurricane warnings were posted from Freeport, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana, as tropical storm Bonnie grew into the year's first hurricane. Hundreds of oil workers were evacuated from rigs as the storm started heading for the coast with winds of 75 miles an hour. It was expected to hit land on Thursday, but its behavior was considered unpredictable.

LEHRER: There were more reverberations today from the cocaine death of basketball star Len Bias. Sports figures and congressmen joined with the Reverend Jesse Jackson to start a nationwide program to educate young people about the dangers of cocaine and other drugs.

Rev. JESSE JACKSON: The nation and the world lost a fine and decent young American this past week with the death of Leonard Bias. We lost Len to drugs -- the greatest epidemic of this century. This is a time for us to turn to each other and not on each other, a time to embrace and not to finger-point. Now we must make a stand. We must rally the government, our community and the media to the issue of drug abuse.

LEFTY DRIESELL, coach: Leonard Bias died, in my opinion, for a purpose. And the purpose, I think, is maybe to bring attention to this committee and to the President and to everybody in the world that drugs can kill.

Rep. CHARLES RANGEL (D) New York: Let's not just mourn this one athlete. It's a tragic loss, but we hope that we can take advantage of this pain, this attack on this wonderful person, and protect mothers and fathers and families throughout this great nation by doing something now.

LEHRER: In Beverly Hills, California today, authorities said a sheriff's marksman mistook a hostage for the gunman and deliberately shot and killed him. The dead man was the manager of the jewelry store and was being used as a shield by the real gunman, who presumably shot and killed two other hostages earlier in yesterday's 14 hour siege.

MacNEIL: In the Seattle area, residents of Kings County were warned today to take no over the counter capsule medicine, and stores were ordered to remove them after a second headache remedy was found to contain cyanide. Two people have died in the Seattle suburb of Auburn from taking extra strength Excedrin capsules that had been laced with cyanide. A spot check in that investigation turned up a bottle of Anacin capsules that had also been tampered with.

Communications workers in five divisions of AT&T have agreed on contract terms, but the 25-day-old nationwide strike continues because of disagreements in two other areas. A national contract was agreed to a week ago, but was subject to the settlement of differences at each of six divisions. Negotiators have still not reached agreement in the information systems or computer division, which employs 35,000 workers, and for another 12,000 who do AT&T contract work for the government.

LEHRER: NASA caught it on the chin again today -- this time from its astronauts, past and present. They told a House committee of their complaints, the most severe coming from astronaut John Young. He said NASA officials ignored reports of too many flights and too few spare parts and overworked technicians.

Capt. JOHN YOUNG, astronaut: Nobody was listening much, because we're all -- you know, NASA's a can do outfit. It can do anything it puts its mind to, and we're trying to do all those things. And I think people were thinking about them, but they didn't know anybody to solve all those problems simultaneously. Now we have a chance to solve them, and I think that's what we're going to do. And we're going to have to do it, because you just can't -- you can't fly machines without the spare parts. And if you're working people 12 on and 12 off for months at a time, that's not a very safe way to operate. You know, if you can't train more than 10 or 12 crews a year, it's hard to fly more than 10 or 12 flights a year. That kind of thing.

LEHRER: Young said NASA has time to mend its ways, because all shuttle flights are suspended and are not expected to resume until next summer at the earliest.

The head of Israel's secret service resigned today. He did so after being granted immunity from prosecution in the Palestinian bus hijackers case.The two Palestinians were beaten to death in 1984 while in custody of secret service agents, and there have been allegations high officials covered up what happened. Avraham Shalom, the resigned official, had headed the agency for five years. We have a report from Keith Graves of the BBC.

KEITH GRAVES [voice-over]: The cabinet met into the night and again this morning before it came up with the surprise formula to try and end this embarrassing affair -- a formula that does nothing to answer the questions arising from the events of April 12, 1984, when four Palestinians hijacked an Israeli bus. Two were killed when soldiers stormed the bus.Two others, according to a government announcement, died of their wounds. But that was a lie, because a photographer had caught them being led away uninjured by Shin Bet agents.It's now not in dispute that they were pistol whipped, questioned, and then killed. But by whom, and on whose orders?Former Attorney General Yitzhak Shamir was thwarted in his attempts to get to thebottom of the affair. Prime Minister Peres says national security comes before the law. Today's announcement is, as Defense Minister Yitzak Rabin acknowledges, a compromise.

YITZAK RABIN: No one is happy. I believe it is a solution.

LEHRER: More U.S. legal troubles are ahead for former president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled today the Philippine government can sue Marcos in this country for violations of U.S. racketeering laws. The judge also granted a preliminary injunction freezing $11.8 million of Marcos assets in the United States.

MacNEIL: That's our news summary. Coming up, a major focus section on the medical and social fallout from the cocaine death of Len Bias. Then part three of our special series on the new immigrants. Cocaine Kills

MacNEIL: To many people, the death of basketball star Len Bias from cocaine came as both a shock and a surprise -- a shock because he was such a young, healthy athlete, and a surprise because many didn't realize that cocaine itself can kill. Bias, the 22-year-old University of Maryland star, died last week, just two days after he was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the highlight of his career.Yesterday the Maryland state medical examiner said an autopsy confirmed it was cocaine and not some hidden heart disorder that killed Len Bias.

Dr. JOHN SMIALEK, Maryland medical examiner: There is no evidence of heart damage. Leonard Bias had a large heart, which was not unexpected, given his tremendous muscular development. But in carefully analyzing and examining sections of his heart muscle, there was no evidence of damage at all. Leonard Bias was a very healthy individual.

Reporter: The cocaine killed him, period?

Dr. SMIALEK: That's correct.

MacNEIL: Exactly how can cocaine kill, and how many people die from it? For some answers, we turn to Dr. Mark Gold, founder of the national cocaine hotline, 1-800-COCAINE. He is also research director of Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.

Dr. Gold, should it be news that cocaine kills?

Dr. MARK GOLD, cocaine hotline: It really shouldn't. For some reason, we have the impression here in our society that illicit drugs are safe until proven dangerous, when we really should have the opposite impression. We consider pharmaceuticals -- even new treatments for cancer -- to be dangerous until proven safe. We should just consider all drugs of abuse to be absolutely and completely dangerous. I mean, the situation with Len Bias is quite tragic, and it may be that that's the kind of thing that people somehow need to understand what experts have been saying for a long time, and even 800-COCAINE callers have been saying for a long time -- that cocaine increases your blood pressure, that cocaine increases your pulse, that it cause irregular heartbeats. You can feel the flutter. Regular intermittent users feel these things, and then they say to themselves, "Oh, but nothing really can happen to me."

MacNEIL: Well, let's go in more detail over this. How does cocaine cause death?

Dr. GOLD: Well, cocaine has a number of ways that it causes death. Cocaine is taken by people for euphoria -- meaning the drug has to get from the site where it enters the body into the brain. If a drug is sniffed, like it was in this case, it has to go from the nose through the veins into one side of the heart to the lungs to the other side of the heart to the body and the brain. As you can see, therefore cocaine will have effects on all the blood vessels, onthe heart twice, and then throughout the blood, causing all kinds of things -- increased blood pressure, pulse, respirations, increased demand on the heart.It goes to the brain, confuses the brain-heart connection -- more irregular heartbeats, more demand on the heart. And so really what medical experts have been saying for quite some time is, "Why isn't it that more people haven't died?"

MacNEIL: Why is it?

Dr. GOLD: It probably has to do with the body's ability to recover from insult. And also because up until very recently, the price of cocaine and the purity of cocaine kept many people from dying. But we really don't know why so many -- MacNEIL: You mean because the price precluded the use of pure cocaine very often, and people were using diluted cocaines that --

Dr. GOLD: Right. That --

MacNEIL: Now, the medical examiner we just saw -- he said that what Len Bias had taken was pure cocaine.

Dr. GOLD: It was at least quite pure cocaine. And they couldn't find any impurities in the blood. And we're seeing more and more of that. In 1978 --

MacNEIL: Because the price has gone down?

Dr. GOLD: Because the price has gone down and more cocaine has become available and the users have changed. There's been changes in use patters.

MacNEIL: So does that mean that -- first of all, if somebody has taken cocaine and has not died from it and taken it again and again, as people do, does that mean they're safe?

Dr. GOLD: No. Definitely not. In fact, we don't know why it is that a person dies and why they don't.

MacNEIL: So if you don't die the first time, it doesn't mean that you're a safe user, and you won't die another time.

Dr. GOLD: Yeah. We tell people that call the hotline that they should thank God and stop -- not that they should consider that they passed some test that they're going to pass again. Just like if you pass a stress cardiogram -- a stress test on a treadmill -- that doesn't automatically mean that you're going to pass it the next time, does it? No, it doesn't mean that at all. Situations change. Cocaine causes an increased demand on the heart to function efficiently as a muscle, and at the same time makes it difficult for the heart to function efficiently as a muscle.

MacNEIL: Why does it make it --

Dr. GOLD: Because it interferes with the normal heart conduction, causes irregular heartbeats, causes brain-heart mis-communication. And so the heart ends up many times just flopping around and not pumping effectively as a muscle.

MacNEIL: Now, if it puts extra demand on the heart, why wouldn't a young athlete in superb condition, as Len Bias was, why wouldn't his heart cope with it?

Dr. GOLD: Well, you would think that if anything, he would be in better shape to handle a cocaine challenge. But again, we don't know why certain people die, why other people end up in emergency rooms -- and by the way, cocaine related emergency room visits have escalated to the point that it's not inconceivable that cocaine related emergency room visits will be the number one drug cause of emergency room visits. Now, when we first started all the 800-COCAINE -- the national hotline -- and cocaine research, when a cocaine user would go to an emergency room, they would say, "I have a cocaine related side effect." And the people in the emergency room would say, "Aw, you're kidding." that was how naive all the medical experts were. They wouldn't even believe the patients.

MacNEIL: Now, are you saying that more cases are turning up -- severe cases of bad reaction -- or that they're just being identified as cocaine?

Dr. GOLD: More cases are turning up. And they're turning up because cocaine has been field tested on the American people -- not -- it's not tested in a laboratory. It was assumed by the American people to be safe. And now we've proven on ourselves that it isn't. We've proven that it causes heart attacks and can kill you; that it causes epileptic seizures and can kill you; that it interferes with motor performance and can ruin an athletic career. Professional sports teams are against cocaine because it takes a Sy Young award winner and turns them into an also ran, or a wide receiver and turns them into dropping the ball. It causes traffic accidents. Cocaine has been field tested and failed.

MacNEIL: Now -- and part of the increase in these bad reactions and deaths, you think, is attributable to the fact that more pure cocaine is available -- people are getting stronger doses for the same amount of money.

Dr. GOLD: Well, they're getting stronger doses for the same amount of money, and we have the mass effect of so many people trying the drug that we could never study all the variables. You know, for example, what's the effect of having -- of using cocaine and then doing a news conference? Well, what's the effect of using cocaine and having three cups of coffee? Those things will never be tested. Just like --

MacNEIL: Because it can't be tested systematically as a legal drug can be, you mean.

Dr. GOLD: Exactly. And there's no -- it's not like we're trying to get this new magical treatment approved for cancer -- we're going to test all the known drug interactions. I'll tell you one of the more tragic things that I've heard that's received very little attention, and that is pregnant women in America have been taking cocaine and have now proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that cocaine causes birth defects. Why is it that they didn't assume beforehand that cocaine would cause birth defects?

MacNEIL: Which they would have done with other drugs.

Dr. GOLD: Which they assume for alcohol and cigarettes.

MacNEIL: Can -- is there any figure on what proportion of people who use cocaine are getting killed by it?

Dr. GOLD: No. We know, for example -- the kind of information that we know is the number of people going to emergency rooms for cocaine related problems. We know the number of people who appear to require some assistance.

MacNEIL: How many people is that?

Dr. GOLD: Through 800-COCAINE we've answered well in excess of 1.6 million calls -- actually answered, not counting the people that couldn't get through because we're so busy -- since May of 1983. So it's estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five million people have had a severe cocaine related problem out of a universe of about 24 or so million people who have ever tried the drug. So somewhere ground one out of five.

MacNEIL: Dr. Gold, thank you.

MacNEIL: Jim?

LEHRER: The death of Len Bias has become more than a medical story -- more than one young athlete's self-destruction. It's also blossomed into a kind of national morality play, with different people writing different plots with different victims, heroes and villains. We explore that now, first with a report by correspondent June Cross.

JUNE CROSS [voice-over]: Len Bias' life and his death touched both those who knew him only by reputation and those who knew him well. Robert Wagner was Len Bias' high school basketball coach.

ROBERT WAGNER, III, high school basketball coach: Everybody that steps on a court, whether it's Sunday afternoon or every day after school, fantasized about this player. Here was the guy that had the jump shot which some people have. Here was the guy that could slam dunk, which some people can do. Here was the guy that was going to the Celtics -- the, you know, the best team in the world. And so I think all of us felt this tie to the realization of all of our fantasies as a player. And I think that's what was really disheartening. And I think that's why there's been so much pain in people's heart because of the loss -- because we really did not just fantasize but love this person.

CROSS [voice-over]: Washington Post sports columnist Tony Kornheiser went to Colefield -- the gym where Len Bias played for Maryland -- the day he died.

TONY KORNHEISER, Washington Post: By late morning the light were all dark at Cole, and it had a very holy feeling to it. And scattered around in the stands were maybe 10 to 20 students who had come there to a shrine, like pilgrims. And I would go up to them and ask them why they were there. And in each case, it was the sense that Lenny Bias had drawn them there -- that he had entertained them and had elevated their campus into the national spotlight. He'd been so good for Maryland that they were, in a sense, repaying him just to go out there. Some would sit with their eyes open, some would sit with their eyes closed. Occasionally they would put their heads in their hands, and you'd hear a sigh. And it was this great sense of bereavement and loss on the part of each student.

CROSS [voice-over]: Today Colefield House was lit, filled with youngsters practicing lay ups and defensive moves. Len Bias attended this camp from the time he was in sixth grade and taught here during college. Today, for some, the way he died didn't tarnish his memory.

Basketball camp student: It doesn't really matter to me. I thought he was a great basketball player, and I'll always like him.

Basketball camp student: Well, I didn't believe it at first. This kid called me on the phone, and then I heard it on the news myself.

CROSS [voice-over]: Schoolmates of Bias had slightly different views.

University of Maryland student: Everybody saw him as a superstar, and people just envied him and, you know, I'm the kind of person that when someone takes cocaine, they deserve to go.

University of Maryland student: A lot of people are, you know, coming out with very negative things, like he wasn't a good student and, you know, stuff like that. But the bottom line is he was a nice person, he was a talented person.And, you know, they should never overlook something like that. The boy was 22.

CROSS [voice-over]: At a Washington press conference, University of Maryland basketball coach Lefty Driesell said he hoped Bias' death would launch a new war on drugs.

Mr. DRIESELL: Cocaine is a killer, and if we can capture the mood, we can sure blow up all the cocaine or do something to stop cocaine from coming into this country and into our youth and --

CROSS [voice-over]: He was joined by the Reverend Jesse Jackson and New York Congressman Charles Rangel, who took turns recommending tactics for that war.

Rev. JACKSON: We're appealing for a national bipartisan policy backed up by the full weight of the U.S. government to declare war on drugs. War on drugs means their willingness to fight the port of supply. We must fight and meet the complex challenge of nations that depend on the drug supply for economic survival.

Rep. RANGEL: If indeed a war has been declared, I ask the questions each time I get an opportunity as to when last have we heard a statement in support of the war against drugs from our Commander in Chief?

CROSS [voice-over]: Columnist Tony Kornheiser said Bias' death will focus more tension on the problems of college sports.

Mr. KORNHEISER: It sheds light again, and asks the question over and over again, "Are big time athletics necessarily corruptive on college campuses? Are athletic departments -- is the athletic tail wagging the academic dog? Are universities corrupted by the lure of millions of collars and put in a position where they will win at any cost?"

LEHRER: He continue the discussion with Carlton Turner, President Reagan's top drug policy advisor and director of the Drug Abuse Policy Office at the White House; the Reverend Jesse Jackson, 1984 candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, who, was we just saw, today called for a new national campaign against drug abuse; and former Atlanta Falcons professional football player, Harmon Wages. He was recently released from federal prison, after serving three months for cocaine possession. He is with us tonight from public station WJCT in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mr. Turner, first, what do you see as the message -- the moral, if you will -- of Len Bias' death?

Dr. CARLTON TURNER, Presidential advisor: Jim, I think you've focused in. We have to say there is a moral issue involved here. There is a survival issue involved here. And I think this young man and the life he lived and the way in which he died is going to be a focal point for young people to give them courage to say no to drugs. It's going to be a focal point for us to rally and say we must do more. We must redouble our efforts in prevention. We must redouble our efforts in interdiction. But we also must focus on the user and focus on the peddlers of death -- the dealers.

LEHRER: Focusing on the user means what, Mr. Turner?

Dr. TURNER: Well, today in our society we talk about interdiction. We talk about education and prevention. But we never talk about the people funding the operations that we're trying to stop.The user, every time he or she buys the drugs, they put money into the system that uses itself against us. It is a national security threat, it is a major health problem, it is a major enforcement problem, and the people funding the money are the ones that are going to keep it going.

LEHRER: The -- the woman on the tape from the University of Maryland campus said, "He took cocaine; he deserved to go." That's what she said of Len Bias. Is that essentially what you're saying?

Dr. TURNER: Well, I bleed in my heart every time I see a person die of drugs. And I think we have to realize that drugs are hazardous and can kill you. Ms. Reagan has been out in schools. The Reverend Jesse Jackson has been out in schools trying to tell young people drugs can kill you. Unfortunately, they don't seem to listen. Perhaps now they will listen.

LEHRER: You think they will listen now, Reverend Jackson?

Rev. JACKSON: Difficult to say.One thing about it, you do violate and break a natural law. And when you jump from a ten foot building, you do not break the law of gravity; you break your neck and prove it. And those laws are kind of basic. And it's just a matter of time. We must look at the supply side and the demand side. Last year 150 tons of cocaine came into our country, 12 tons of heroin, 60 tons of marijuana. And we only were able to stop about 15% of it and cut the budget by 4%. And that's very basic, it seems. About a $17 billion educational budget -- less than $3 million for drug education. So obviously we need to step up the process of stopping it. And if we can identify where terrorists are coming from and use a preemptive strike when we define it as terrorism, as we did in Libya -- if we can identify where marijuana and cocaine and heroin are coming from, we must fight it, because it's such a threat to our national security. That's one side -- the supply side struggle. The other side is the demand side struggle. Our youth are not being force fed drugs. They are demanding them. Our value has collapsed.

LEHRER: Nobody forced Len Bias to sniff cocaine.

Rev. JACKSON: There's a values collapse. There's an ethical collapse. There is the transmission of the drug culture through music and video -- the glorification of the media. So there is on the one hand the challenge of the Congress and the President to declare a serious war at the level of attacking the point of supply, number one. Number two, putting more enforcement in the interdiction process. Three, more drug eduction. But then, four, a solid challenge to our youth and professionals to have the character to resist drugs and liquor and sex without love and violence -- that kind of spiritual surrender that is creating such havoc among all of us.

LEHRER: Mr. Wages in Jacksonville, what do you think is at -- do you see this as a moral issue? Was it a moral issue for you?

HARMON WAGES, former cocaine user: Well, what happened to me, I got involved with doing cocaine through the peer pressure, the same type thing that I think Len Bias did. It was there. I made a mistake. I tried it. I paid for it. And now what I'm trying to do is similar to what Reverend Jesse Jackson's doing. I'm travelling around with the Elks lodges, I'm travelling around with boys' clubs trying to educate our youth at the ages of fourth grade and older, which is really where they first start attacking the youth -- especially with crack these days, as Reverend Jackson will tell you -- trying to educate them as to what will happen when you do drugs. I only did try cocaine maybe ten times, but if I'd never messed around with it, I would not have gotten in trouble.Now, I want to say one thing about Len Bias. I think what Rock Hudson did when he died from AIDS, which brought it to the public -- reeducated the public; they now want to know more about it -- Len Bias will serve as that same type example for cocaine -- that it can kill you, even if you only try it one or two or three times. And I think his death will be best served by everybody saying, "Wow, look what can happen to me." He was a young, bright -- great future ahead of him.

LEHRER: Did you -- when you first used cocaine, did you not know it would hurt you?

Mr. WAGES: When I first used it, I tried it socially.

LEHRER: With other athletes? Was that --

Mr. WAGES: No, I never tried it with athletes. We didn't hang around that much. I tried it basically by myself or some time at a social function, get involved in it. I wasn't as educated as I am now about what it can do to you. I've found out all about it. I think, as Reverend Jackson can probably relate to, and Mr. Turner, this new epidemic we have, which is crack, which they're selling our children -- very young children for three to five dollars -- highly addictive refined cocaine. What they do, they freebase it for you and sell you the solid cocaine cheaper at a bigger volume. That is our biggest problem right now.And we have to educate everybody.

LEHRER: Mr. Turner, you've heard what the Reverend Jackson and now Mr. Wages say -- we need to educate. Educate is the word, and they say -- or at least Reverend Jackson says that the federal government needs to play a bigger role in the education. Do you agree?

Dr. TURNER: We've been playing a very big role in the education. I don't know where the reverend got his figures, but I have to take issue with him. We've increased the budget over 100% in enforcement. We can not buy what he's doing with federal dollars in prevention and education. If we're concerned about a federal effort or a national effort, our approach is to get the Lions involved, to get the boys' clubs involved, to get the Elks involved to raise awareness. I can take you to school after school that has a drug education program. You don't have people admit they have a problem. Reverend Jackson goes in. Ms. Reagan goes in. People will say, "Yeah, we have a drug problem." Teachers will have a drug problem. We have to attack it in society, and we have to go forward on every front. Our approach has been an international approach. We have interdiction on 14 -- I mean, eradication of 14 countries. We have a good law enforcement effort. Our young people are turning away from drugs. In 1980 we had one in nine high school seniors using drugs on a daily basis. In 1985 one in twenty. We're doing something right as a society.

LEHRER: Well, let's get back --

Rev. JACKSON: It seems to me, though, that if we identify a certain area where terrorists are training to interfere with our lives, we use the full weight of our diplomatic, economic and military strength to attack it at the point of supply. We know where the cocaine, heroin and marijuana's coming from. We must be as vigorous -- Supreme Court Justice Burger said that drug use is a bigger threat to our society than communism. And yet we do not respond to this daily threat with the same degree of vigor.

LEHRER: Look, we'll get back to that in a minute. But let's talk about Len Bias specifically for a minute. Reverend Jackson, here's a young man who apparently had everything going for him, and he took a -- he honestly did not mean to commit suicide. He -- why did he not know -- why does a young man like that not know what he's doing to himself when he sniffs cocaine?What can be done about that?

Rev. JACKSON: Well, obviously, there was a value collapse. There was a notion that this was a legitimate way to pursue pleasure, because others have done it. It's an illegitimate way to pursue pleasure. It is an illegitimate form of entertainment.

LEHRER: But where does that happen? Where is the failure for a man in that particular -- that age, doing what he does, which is play basketball. Where's the failure in the system?

Rev. JACKSON: Well, he's living in an environment that is permissive in its use of drugs and liquor and violence as a socially acceptable lifestyle. I said at the funeral that we see the KKK as a symbol of threat to us -- racism, anti-Semitism, they hang people -- we react. So if somebody came to a party and passed out a little sheet and a little rope, we would be insulted. But they come and pass out a little dope, we figure that's their personal business. The fact is the little sheet and the little rope has never been as big a threat as the little snow or the little dope. We do not see it as the threat that it is to us nationally, personally and internationally.

LEHRER: Let me ask Mr. Wages, have you felt any -- of course, you've served some time for what you did. Have you suffered any other repercussions from society because of your association with cocaine? Are people turned on you? Have you felt it?

Mr. WAGES: Well, at first a lot of people were disappointed in what I had done -- especially my family and people that are close to me. But since I have gotten out of serving 81 days, which I did in a federal prison camp in Atlanta, I have realized my mistake.And, as my daddy once told me, your biggest mistake is not correcting your mistake. So what I have done is with the Elks lodges, the boys' clubs and the United Way and various and sundry groups around Atlanta, I've been trying to preach what is wrong with drugs. Because I've been through it and used -- like Len Bias today, for example. And tonight when I speak, people have come back to me because they -- I'm more human to them now, I think. Because before, when I was a sports caster on TV all the time and playing pro football, you're kind of put upon a pedestal. And now you've become human. They have problems too. They realize you made a mistake, and you can relate to them actually better. And actually, I am better received now in Atlanta than I was before.

LEHRER: Mr. Turner, though, is that going to solve anything? Should people like Mr. Wages be treated more harshly than they are when they are caught doing something bad with drugs?

Dr. TURNER: I think Harmon has shown that if you make a mistake, you have to pay the consequences. And that is what has happened in our society. No one wanted to make the drug user pay the consequence, because they said it's his right to use drugs. It's not a right to use drugs. It's not a right to destroy your society. For example, if I go to a football game, or someone else, you might see a person smoking a joint or snorting a line. Noboby does anything. But if that same person got naked, you'd call the police. So we have to say if you choose to use drugs, you have to pay the consequences. You're not going to solve the problem of drugs until you make the user start paying the consequences.

LEHRER: Now, you mean put them in jail. Somebody smokes cocaine and they're caught, put them in jail?

Dr. TURNER: I'm not saying put them in jail. The society's got to say we are not going to tolerate. You've got to ostracize them. You've got to put the peer pressure against them. For a while, as the makeup man was telling me coming in here, when you went to a cocktail party, if you didn't use drugs, you were square. Now, he says, "When I go to a cocktail party, if I use drugs," not -- he didn't use it, but the statement was, "If you use drugs, you're stupid." And that's very powerful message.

Rev. JACKSON: You know, this is the one issue where I would hope that we could meet with President Reagan on and come out with some substantial agreement, but use a comprehensive solution. What Mrs. Reagan and I do is basically a demand side challenge -- do not demand it.Let your morals and your mind say no to it. That is, we can not attack the point of supply, for example. We can not affect the -- only about 15% of the drugs that's coming this way are interdicted. We can not affect that. On the other hand, we are going to meet tomorrow with the chancellor at the University of Maryland and Lefty Driesell, the athletic director, hoping we can get other top coaches, athletic directors and chancellors to look at the role the universities and athletics are playing in this. Because when these youth, for example are -- they're so propped up, and they're so pumped up until they're really professional athletes under the veneer of students, for example. Some of that pressure needs to be reduced on them, as a case in point.

LEHRER: Let's bring Dr. Gold back into this. Dr. Gold, how do you see, from your perspective, how -- the role of the athlete -- particularly the professional athlete. What do you think can be done about that particular problem?

Dr. GOLD: Well, we have a lot of different problems with the athlete. We have one problem that the athlete gets accustomed to this gratification -- the glory of the crowd, the glory of performing. And in a way, he can become addicted to that. In many respects, athletes are more easily addicted to modd altering drugs than other people that I've seen and treated. Another thing that you have --

LEHRER: Now, why is that?

Dr. GOLD: Well, I said because they're accustomed and become almost repetitively addicted or dependent upon instant reward or short bursts of work and reward.

LEHRER: Let's ask Harmon -- let me interrupt and ask Harmon Wages. You agree with that, Mr. Wages?

Mr. WAGES: Well, I see what he's saying, because the athlete is used to being the center of attention and perhaps -- I've seen some popular people who probably get into cocaine because it was the social thing to do -- made them supposedly cool. I think it's the social thing, you might say. And perhaps they did think that if they had some cocaine with them they would be more popular -- maybe more popular with the ladies if they had something. And that could have a psychological effect where you're used to having the attention.

LEHRER: What about the idea that Reverend Jackson brought up of the pressure on athletes? Is that related at all? Was that related at all to your experience with cocaine?

Mr. WAGES: I don't think it -- the pressure with me. I got into it because, as Mr. Turner said, it's everywhere. Five thousand people try cocaine every day for the first time. Twenty thousand people try marijuana every day for the first time. I tried it. A dealer got arrested.He told on me. That's how my trouble started. However, had I not have ever been messing around with it, nothing would have happened. So what I learned through education, which I agree with Reverend Jackson that you do this right away beginning early on -- is that you do attack this by educating --

LEHRER: Are you suggesting, Mr. Wages, that if that guy had not turned you in and you had not been caught, you probably wouldn't have stopped using cocaine?

Mr. WAGES: No, I didn't say that, because I was quitting. But I -- when you're in a position that I was in, sir, you have an example to set. The government had every right to make an example out of me. Now it's time for me to set that example. I got convicted of one misdemeanor -- possession. I paid for it, and I learned a lot. And I hope to be a better person for it and do what I can to make sure that our children don't make the same mistake I did.

Rev. JACKSON: One of the reasons I'm reaching out appealing to the President to assume the same kind of charge and communicative skills he does when he's fighting terrorism and threats to us on this is that what all of us are saying fits in some broader picture. On this issue all roads converge. My concern is that we focus on the athlete, but when I go to Weston High School, I gather that school for the deaf, and children nine, ten, eleven and twelve are already into liquor and marijuana and coke. If they can't find that, sniffing formaldehyde they stole from a funeral home or aerosol spray. This massive avoidance of -- some of them are pursuing pleasure; many are avoiding pain. And therefore we need the sum total of those like Dr. Gold who has studied the psychological drive that sends us this way. We need the mass media people who transmit our culture. We need high profile athletes, the government. There must be massive coordination and the kind of counter-cultural movement that says no to drugs, the threat to our lives.

LEHRER: Is the President going to do what Mr. Jack -- President what President -- Reverend Jackson would like for you -- like for him to do?

Dr. TURNER: What bothers me is the President on 167 different occasions has called for actions on drugs, and you don't see it. In 1981 in New Orleans he put forth his policy on drugs, and he talked about crime. The media reported all the crime and didn't say a thing in the world about drugs. He's called for it repeatedly and repeatedly. He has been the person up front, getting the Vice President involved in interdiction. Ms. Reagan has been out front getting the prevention and education going. I don't know a government anywhere that's had as high a profile as we have on this. The government is very concerned. The President is concerned, and he's going to make some initiatives.

LEHRER: Let me ask Dr. Gold -- you're the expert. What could -- from your perspective, could President Reagan do anything to affect the cocaine problem?

Dr. GOLD: I think everyone that lives in this country believes that President Reagan can do a lot. I also believe that he's done a lot. But we know that the major problem right now is we have to change the way people -- all people in the United States -- think about drugs. We have to teach them that drugs are dangerous. Whether some new drug comes along after cocaine or not, we have to teach people that drugs are absolutely and positively dangerous. And also, like Dr. Turner suggested, it should be -- we should feel offended when somebody uses drugs in our presence. We're now offended if somebody smokes a cigarette, but I can tell you that I went to a concert and complained about somebody smoking marijuana in the seat next to me, and no one would believe me. I said, "I'm Dr. Gold. I'm a drug expert." And I think they thought I was a mental case.

LEHRER: I hear you. Dr. Gold, Mr. Wages in Jacksonville, Mr. Turner, Reverend Jackson, thank you all four very much. The New Immigrants

MacNEIL: Next, part three of our series on America's new immigrants, with a portrait of one of the largest immigrant groups -- the Mexicans. More than two million legal immigrants since the 1960s and countless more illegals make up this diverse community. They include those who have achieved the American dream and those for whom it still means -- remains a mirage. June Massell has the story of Manuel Caldera, whose life spans both cultures.

Group: One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

JUNE MASSELL [voice-over]: Manny Caldera has good reason to be patriotic. America has been kind to him.

[on camera] You started a company with $17,000, and you sold it for $50.5 million.

MANUEL CALDERA: Right.

MASSELL: How many years later?

Mr. CALDERA: Thirteen and a half years later. And so, you know, what a great country, isn't it?

MASSELL [voice-over]: A few weeks ago the Red Cross gave Manny Caldera the Hispanic Citizen of the Year Award -- the latest in a series of awards Caldera has won. In 1983 President Reagan named him Hispanic Businessman of the Year. Manny Caldera is an entrepreneur, a self-made venture capitalist. The son of immigrants, he's a Mexican-American success story based in California. His parents came to this country during the Mexican revolution and settled into life in the barrio. A poor family, they lived in a small house and had enough money for only bare essentials. But Manny Caldera managed to raise himself of the barrio. And today when he goes back, he travels by limousine to the old neighborhood in Wilmington, California, 20 miles sough of Los Angeles.

They used to call it Mexican Hollywood. And when Caldera entered grammar school, he thought people in America spoke Spanish. That's because the Mexican population was so large. There are more Mexicans in Los Angeles than in any other city in the world, except Mexico City. But soon, he says, he learned that the people who spoke English -- the Anglos -- ran the country, and the Mexicans were the laborers.

Mr. CALDERA: When I was 20, you know, I really didn't think I was inferior; I knew it. Okay? And the reason I knew it was I was thinking logically, okay? I did not know a single professional Mexican-American. I did not know anyone that went to work with a tie on.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Caldera started working in the nearby fish canneries when he was 13. He'd clean fish after school.He assumed he'd clean fish for the rest of his life.

Mr. CALDERA: I used to think about, you know, working here for the next 30, 40 years. And I used to think that I'd do anything to avoid it, but I always thought that there was a good chance that I might.

MASSELL [voice-over]: The turning point was the army and officer's candidate school.That's what gave Manny Caldera the self-respect and confidence to move on.

Mr. CALDERA: I'll never forget when the men were all ready for the parade, and I'm 22 years old at the time. And -- or 21, something like that. And I said, you know, "Right face." And here these 100, you know, gringos turned right, you know. And I kind of thought, "Wow." You know, "These guys are doing what I'm telling them to do." You know, then I said, "Forward march." And they all started marching, okay? I mean, so as time went by that way in the army, I saw that I was respected, you know? I wasn't looked on as a Mexican-American. I was looked on as an officer of the United States Army. That was probably the biggest change at that time for me.

MASSELL [voice-over]: The next turning point was his experience working in marketing for various corporations, where he soon won a reputation for being a master salesman.

Mr. CALDERA: It finally occurred to me that I was making money for other people, you know, that I could be making for myself. And also by that time I'd also sized up the competition. And I realized that people -- other people weren't willing, you know, to work as hard as I was willing to work. You know, one thing about being a salesman is, you know, you have to eat a lot of bull, right? Well, I had the competition on my Anglo competitors, because I had been eating bull all my life, okay? And they hadn't. So I didn't have to, you know, learn how.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Caldera went into business in 1971 and built up a company called Amex -- a high tech electronics company that manufactures navigation and communications equipment for the aerospace and defense industries. Two years ago he sold the company to Allied Bendex and set up the Caldera Company. He now devotes himself to private investment and venture capital deals -- deals that he negotiates on both coasts.

[on camera] What's a wet burrito?

Man: One with a green card.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Caldera no longer feels inferior. When he lived in the barrio, he couldn't afford lunch.Now he can buy lunch for the guys he grew up with.

[on camera] Nobody's gotten as far as Manny?

Men: No.

Man: All our families like -- they liked us all, but he was just a little bit different. He had a drive, and he talked real courteous and everything. I think that this personality of his went on from there. Especially in school.

MASSELL: Are you surprised?

Man: Well, not really, because you knew he was going to get there one way or the other. He was -- he strived for it, in other words.

MASSELL [voice-over]: None of the men seated around this table had Caldera's ambition. They still work on the waterfront near Wilmington -- just like they thought they were supposed to when they were kids. But there is a change. Many of their co-workers today are not American citizens. They are new immigrants -- undocumented workers.

[on camera] Two years ago Starkist -- the same fish cannery where Manny Caldera worked as a kid -- tried to fire 12 undocumented Mexican workers. They were not charged with misconduct. It was the suspicion of their illegal status that provoked the firings.

[voice-over] Rosa Gonzales was one of the 12. She came to this country illegally with her seven children in 1960. A young widow, she knew she could no longer support her family in Mexico.

"I was the only one to take care of them," she told me. "I had cows on a piece of land, but after a while there was nothing left. I didn't want my daughters to work as servants, because a maid is a very low thing to be in Mexico. I didn't want my daughters to suffer the humiliation." So Gonzales decided to try her luck in America. She got a job at the Starkist fish cannery, where she worked for 17 years. But one day two years ago, management wanted to see her immigration papers, and Rosa didn't have any. Starkist management feared two things: a raid by the immigration service and new legislation that would impose sanctions on employers who hired illegal aliens.

Rosa told me, "The supervisor asked me for my papers. When I couldn't present them, he made me leave. They practically shoved me out the door." Her union fought back on the grounds that management should not be enforcing immigration policy, especially before legislation was even voted upon by Congress. Although the workers were reinstated, Starkist eventually closed some of its operations, and Rosa Gonzales was let go anyway. She now baby sits for her grandchildren for $30 a week.

When Manny Caldera heard about what happened at Starkist, he was outraged. He has been lobbying to change immigration laws ever since.

Mr. CALDERA: Here there was a law that hadn't even been passed, and in anticipation of this law being passed, here was this company -- had employees that had been working for them for 15, 16 years -- were going to just fire these people. I mean, just literally throw them out. And after I got over my outrage, what I started thinking about was, "God, what happens if the bill passes?" Okay? Imean, I thought this was going to have, you know, tremendous impact, not only in the fish cannery but throughout the economy, and especially the service economy.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Caldera was in a position to do something about his outrage. Over the years, he has become politically well connected. That's because his contacts grew as his business grew -- both in and out of government. Today he's very active in Republican politics. He's invited to meetings at the White House and spends a lot of time in Washington socializing with Presidential advisors like Lyn Nofziger.

And he frequently loans his home in Palm Springs to the elite and the wealthy for Republican party fund raisers. It's the kind of networking Caldera likes. He can keep an eye out for new business, and at the same time try to help Hispanics who have not had the good fortune he has.

ANTONIA HERNANDEZ, MALDEF: Manny Caldera is a friend of those that don't have what he has, and that includes the Mexican-American. And that includes the undocumented. He deeply cares about those issues.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Antonia Hernandez is the head of MALDEF -- the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund. Because Caldera has become a lobbying voice for undocumented workers like Rosa Gonzales, he periodically meets with MALDEF to strategize about immigration policy.

Ms. HERNANDEZ: Everybody gives their little spiel on where they feel about the issue. This is the House Judiciary. On the following week is when they start marking up the bill. What you two can do is the personal networking. You people have access to people in the administration -- in the White House -- that I don't.

MASSELL [voice-over]: The main issue this group is confronting is how to defeat legislation in Congress that would impose employer sanctions -- a policy MALDEF believes would discriminate against Hispanics.

Ms. HERNANDEZ: Nothing gets to the President and the White House without Regan approving it. And Regan has always been ambivalent about this issue.

Mr. CALDERA: I don't know if I can do it, but I can sure work on it, okay? I'll get a meeting with him and brief him.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Caldera is also in favor of granting amnesty to those already here illegally.

Mr. CALDERA: They see the hoopla being made over the Statue of Liberty. You know, here she is with the torch and all that. Here's all these immigrants coming, you know, over. Just imagine what would have happened to this country if we had closed our borders 100 years ago or 150 years ago. You know, where would your parents have been? I know my parents -- they'd have never come over. And I don't see where it's hurt this country at all. I think these immigrants that came over have done -- has been what's made America strong.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Caldera attributes his drive and determination to his mother, who came to this country as a young woman and struggled most of her adult life so her children could succeed.

[on camera] What are your favorite things about America?

HELEN CARRANZA, mother: Well, I like the best things -- the baseball, the horse races and Las Vegas, sure. And then what do I like? Dancing, music, everything.

Mr. CALDERA: With some of my cousins or uncles, who are much younger, they'd walk off the dance floor with her, they'd be going -- [shakes hand]

MASSELL: When you see your father now with having built up such a huge business and being a leader in the Hispanic community, being invited to the White House by the President, shaking hands with several presidents, what do you think?

MARTA CALDERA, daughter: I get to feeling rather patriotic, and thinking this could only happen in the United States. You know, I think thank God that we landed here. And because I know that had my grandmother stayed in Mexico, things would have been a lot different, I think.

MASSELL [voice-over]: Just as Caldera bridges the gap in his own family between immigrant parents and assimilated grandchildren, in the larger world he is a bridge between two cultures -- Hispanic and Anglo. And he is a symbol for both cultures of someone who made good in America and now wants to help pave the way for others to follow.

MASSELL [voice-over]: It's a wonderful feeling to give, and please believe me -- you'll receive it back a thousandfold. Thank you very much for such a great honor.

MacNEIL: Tomorrow night in our continuing series on immigrants, we'll see that Cuban Americans have become a powerful political force in South Florida, We'll meet one of their leaders -- Javier Souto, a Cuban refugee who's now a popular Republican state legislator.

LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this Wednesday. The House neared a final vote on aid to the contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. All sides predict a close vote on President Reagan's $100 million request. And the first hurricane of the season, called Bonnie, is gaining strength and threatens the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. Good night, Robin.

MacNEIL: Good night, Jim. That's our News Hour tonight. We will be back tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil. Good night.