Greene Pledges Himself to a Sober Life : Legislature: The state senator, who entered an alcohol treatment center during the legislative session, declares: ‘I can’t slip up.’

SACRAMENTO —  State Sen. Bill Greene, who recently completed an alcohol treatment program at the Betty Ford Center, declared Monday that he intends to remain sober the “rest of my life.”

The veteran Los Angeles Democrat, who missed the final weeks of the Legislature’s 1989 session when he entered the Rancho Mirage treatment program, said alcoholism is something he never expected to succumb to and, when he did, “obviously that affected my productivity on the job.”

“It’s startling when you’re finally forced against the wall to face things, particularly things you have prided (yourself) all your life as not being susceptible to,” he told a news conference.

In the months since he first acknowledged his problem, Greene said he has learned more about himself and vowed to lead a sober life.

“I’m going to stay in sobriety the rest of my life,” he said. “I can’t slip up.”

Greene entered a Northern California treatment center in July at the urging of Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles). He checked out a few days later and then entered the Betty Ford Center just before the Legislature returned from its summer recess Aug. 21.

He said he went back to work Sept. 25, 10 days after the close of the legislative session.

Greene, chairman of the Senate Industrial Relations Committee, made his comments as he released a two-year report on worker productivity which showed among other things that drug and alcohol abuse is a major cause of lost productivity in America’s large corporations.

“This is one area in which I can add a little personal zeal to indicating what happens to the individual, how you fall off the log,” he said.

Asked if job-related stress had contributed to his own problems, Greene said, “Greatly, greatly, greatly.”

He praised his staff and Senate colleagues for pushing through his legislative program in the weeks that he was absent. Even those lawmakers who had strongly opposed him philosophically, he said, “came to my aid” during his difficulties.

Greene drew laughter when he said that the percentage of his legislation that was signed by the governor was “no different in my absence than in my presence.”

As for his constituents, he said they, too, seemed to be understanding of his problems. Not a single one, he said, complained to him about his absences.