What`s Causing Growing Problem of Drunk-Driving Moms?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: In the spotlight tonight, the national crisis of drunk driving. Now, the focus is on females, women like Diane Schuler who drove drunk and high, in the wrong direction, down the Topanac (ph) state parkway, killing herself, four children and three men. Eight total. Mind- boggling. Then there`s the horrific case of the allegedly drunk mom, Carmen Huertas getting behind the wheel with seven little girls, losing control and killing an innocent 11-year-old. And just today, she was indicted on charges of manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and assault. Millions of women suffer from drug and alcohol abuse in this country. One fantastic group helps women recover from these destructive addictions. It`s called Friendly House. Joining me to talk about this growing epidemic is the president of the board of directors at Friendly House, Wendy Slavkin. Wendy, is it my imagination or are we seeing more drunk-driving moms?</s>WENDY SLAVKIN, PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, FRIENDLY HOUSE: No. It`s not your imagination. In fact, there are statistics that show that from -- in the last seven or eight years, the percentage of women driving drunk has grown -- has increased to over 30 percent what it was before. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that women now are the bread winners. There`s more stress on them, more pressure to achieve and to be on top. But no, you are not -- that is definitely what`s going on here. But there are places that women can go to recover. And I think a lot of women don`t know this. That there are specific places that are just for them. Friendly House, which you mentioned, is one of them, which is one of the oldest houses for women, residential treatment programs for women, recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction in the United States, having been first started in 1951. Has two houses, one of which is on Normandy. That was our original house. That was built in about 1918. And we have another house that was given to us by the grace of William Shatner. That`s in the Castle Heights area.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you know, these -- I`m looking at these videos right now, and these are actually beautiful places. Some people are so afraid, women are so afraid of going into rehab. Look, it`s a great environment. And consider the alternative. Consider that, if you don`t do this, you could kill someone. In the case of drunk-driving mom Diane Schuler, her husband has insisted that she was not a drinker, despite the tests that show she was very drunk and she was high.</s>DANIEL SCHULER, HUSBAND OF DRUNK-DRIVING MOM: I go to bed every night knowing, my heart is clear: she did not drink. She is not an alcoholic. Listen to all that. She is not an alcoholic, and my heart rests every night when I go to bed.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy, this guy may be in denial. Are there cases where wives and mothers are battling addiction in secret so that their husbands don`t even know?</s>SLAVKIN: Well, absolutely. The disease of alcoholism and drug addiction is a disease of denial. So the fact that it would carry over to women that are moms or soccer moms is absolutely the way it is these days. We have women that come into Friendly House every day, whose husbands, whose boyfriends, whose loved ones had no clue what they were doing behind closed doors. They were -- they were closet alcoholics or closet drug users. We -- we see this all the time. And I think that it`s an epidemic in the sense that the percentage of women drinking and using is increasing, and they`re not getting the help that they need, because there`s so much shame attached to it, or they don`t want to tell their husbands until something like this happens where people are killed, people are injured. Then all of a sudden, oh, well, maybe they should have done something about it. So we`re here to offer women a safe place to go. We don`t turn anybody away for lack of pay.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Wendy, excellent advice. Listen to her. Get sober if you`re a drunk. Another sex scandal, next.