POLICE INVESTIGATE LIVE-IN DRUG TREATMENT FACILITY'S FUNDS

The Winston-Salem Police Department is investigating a residential
substance abuse treatment program that has two offices in the Cape Fear area.

Nancy Griffith, vice chairwoman of the Forsyth Initiative for Residential
Self-Help Treatment, or FIRST, Inc., said the organization's director asked
police to investigate reports of possible misappropriation of funds.

Earlier this month, program officials discovered that their available cash
was well below normal for this time of year, Ms. Griffith said. The
shortfall might be attributable to a decline in donations after Sept. 11,
Ms. Griffith said. Following terrorist attacks in New York and Washington,
contributors may have directed money elsewhere to assist those victims.

She declined to say how much of a shortfall FIRST was facing.

The request for an outside investigation comes on the heels of the removal
of the nonprofit organization's founding president, Mary Hogden.

Ms. Griffith said, however, that the dismissal shouldn't be interpreted as
an implication that Ms. Hogden or anyone else associated with FIRST was
involved in financial wrongdoing.

"We're launching a full investigation right now," Ms. Griffith said, adding
that Ms. Hogden's removal was tied to her perceived lack of business
experience.

"We had to restructure - to get a business administrator and separate the
business side from the program side," she said. "We had hoped to continue
with Mary in place but in spite of our best efforts we realized it just
wouldn't work. It's been run like a mom-and-pop operation and it's just
gotten too big for that."

Since starting in Winston-Salem in 1991, FIRST has grown rapidly, Ms.
Griffith said. It now has treatment facilities in Black Mountain, Elkin,
Wilmington and Whiteville.

The Wilmington facility opened about five years ago. The facility in
Whiteville has been open for about two years.

Ms. Griffith said she and other board members are worried about upholding
the organization's reputation so as not to jeopardize obtaining future
grants, which are the lifeblood of the program. She said she believes those
who have funded FIRST in the past will be more understanding if they see
the board acting.

In addition to inviting a police investigation, she said, the board is
restructuring the way FIRST is run. Plans call for dividing the business
and program operations.

John Malone, director of the FIRST facility in Wilmington, said Thursday he
hopes the organization will quickly resolve matters.

Like others who staff the treatment facilities, Mr. Malone has been through
the intensive two-year in-house program himself. Now he oversees 14 men who
live at the Brunswick Street facility. To pay for their own treatment,
these men work for outside businesses that contract with FIRST.

Mr. Malone said those entering the program work and receive intensive
counseling.

"It keeps their mind off of the streets and off of drugs," he said.

At the Whiteville facility, which is home to 21 co-ed residents, Director
Brandie Adamson echoed Mr. Malone's concern for the program.

She said the FIRST program saved her life by helping her overcome an
addiction to prescription drugs.

"This is the last chance for a lot of people," she said. "By the time you
get here it's either jail or your life."

Ms. Adamson said because facility staff members have been through the
program, they can relate to those coming in for treatment.

"They know we're not asking them to go through anything we haven't been
through ourselves," she said.

Ms. Adamson said hope for the program's continuation is about much more
than protecting staff positions.

"This isn't just a job. It's our life," she said.