Drug Rehabilitation

Mayoral candidate Mary W. Conaway announced yesterday that if elected, she would appoint a high-level Cabinet official to coordinate new anti-drug efforts in the city.The official would oversee drug rehabilitation -- including job and literacy training -- among several city departments, said Conaway, who is the city's Register of Wills.Vowing to help eradicate what she called "blight in Baltimore City," Conaway pledged to create an agency to keep track of addicts moving through corrections, parole and social service programs.

Teen Challenge, a national Christian faith-based drug and alcohol treatment program for adults of all ages, has come to Baltimore.Teen Challenge of Baltimore has opened temporary administrative offices in the 1200 block of N. Calvert St. and will begin accepting clients in two months. The organization purchased a building in the 2100 block of St. Paul St., which it will renovate to accommodate as many as 22 men and three staff members. The program, for which radio station WCAO-AM raised more than $20,000 last month, will join a handful of religious-based rehabilitation programs in the city.

Over the past 14 years, Patrick T. Cook has made one bad choice after another. His criminal record includes convictions for theft, drug possession and distribution and forgery. He blames his mistakes on drugs and alcohol.Now, at 34, Cook says he's ready to take responsibility for his actions and make changes. He has completed an inpatient drug rehabilitation program and has been sober for eight months.Cook is making his new start at the Friends in Recovery Home in Sykesville, Carroll County's first halfway house for recovering alcoholics and addicts.

A 20-year-old Francis Scott Key High School student was granted probation before judgment yesterday and ordered to enroll in a drug rehabilitation program within three weeks.Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. ordered Steven E. Lewis of Westminster released from the Carroll County Detention Center, where he had been since Nov. 4 for failing to complete terms of his probation in another case.Lewis was initially granted probation before judgment in November 1995 on charges involving a breaking and entering and an assault on a man in Westminster.

Two 16-year-old girls have been charged as adults in an attempted carjacking in Ellicott City early Friday and a 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile in the case, Howard County police said.Asia T. McPhaul of Temple Hills and Denise T. VanRyn of Baltimore were in the Howard County Detention Center yesterday on $50,000 bail each.Police said there would be a hearing this week at which the defense is expected to argue that the two should be tried as juveniles.The third girl was released Friday to the Oakview Treatment Center, a drug rehabilitation facility in Ellicott City.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- There's no need to tell Lonnie Smith, the Orioles' reserve outfielder and designated-hitter candidate, about stigmas.Eleven years have passed since Smith voluntarily checked himself into a drug rehabilitation clinic, and still nobody seems to be able to get the story straight, he says.Rather than run from his past, though, Smith talks about it, figuring it's the best means to rectify matters."Somehow, there was this perception out there that I had been through drug rehab three times and I had been caught with drugs and arrested," Smith said.

Royal champ:Britain's Princess Anne has cut more ribbons and attended more banquets than any other member of the royal family, according to a survey.Queen Elizabeth, her husband, Prince Philip, and 14 other family members -- often criticized for their enormous wealth and what some consider to be their frivolous activities -- made 4,292 appearances in Great Britain and abroad in 1991.Princess Anne was the busiest with 745 events; the queen was next, with 581; and Prince Philip was third, with 587.On the lower end of the list are Princess Margaret, who fell t 103 engagements last year; Prince Andrew, who had 107, but it should be remembered that he is in the navy; and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, with only 102, but she's 91 years old.The survey, compiled by insurance broker Tim O'Donovan from royal schedule listings and published yesterday, includes ribbons cut, investitures attended and lunches, buffets and banquets consumed in the line of royal duty.

An article in yesterday's editions of The Sun inadvertently suggested that Mass Transit Administration subway drivers had failed random drug tests. The MTA says none of its 88 subway drivers has ever tested positive for drug use.The Sun regrets the error.Twenty-six state Mass Transit Administration drivers and mechanics who failed random drug tests will get their jobs back if they remain drug-free for a year and complete rehabilitation programs, an arbitrator has ruled.While arbitrator Richard Bloch upheld MTA's right to continue the 20-month program of random drug testing, he agreed with the Transit Union's position that automatic firing of first-time violators was too severe.

One of the nation's most controversial drug treatment programs has opened in Columbia amid protests, picket lines and legal wrangling over whether the facility will be allowed to operate in Maryland.Sixprotesters carried picket signs Monday outside Straight Inc.'s office in the Oakland Ridge Industrial Park, denouncing the drug rehabilitation program for youngsters as violent and abusive.The protesters said they expect to be picketing the office, whichopened July 29, every Monday and Friday.