ADDICT CRACKS DOWN TO HELP STUDENTS

A former drug addict who spent six and a half years in prison is
coming to High River to speak to students.

Mike Ryan, founder of Clean Scene Network for Youth, will be in High
River on Feb. 7 speaking to students about drug prevention and
choices. Ryan will touch on his personal experiences with substance
abuse and a criminal lifestyle to try and teach students the
consequences of the poor choices they make.

"We want to make sure kids understand the damages of getting involved
in drugs and a criminal lifestyle," Ryan said.

Founded in 2002, Clean Scene is a drug prevention program for
schools. The two speakers, Ryan and Corry Grunsky, both have many
years of experience as addicts and having criminal lifestyles, as
well as in psychology. Clean Scene is a choice-based organization.

Ryan has spoken to about 150, 000 students as part of Clean Scene,
and about 500,000 in past 15 years. Ryan presents mostly to Alberta
students, but has also spoken in B.C., Saskatchewan and the Northwest
Territories. His objective is to reach every student in every school
every three years. The future goal is to have a different speaker every year.

Ryan says the more kids that are involved in drugs, the more problems
there are for the community. One drug trafficker can cost a community
$1 million.

Ryan grew up in an average home with good parents. He has an older
brother and a younger sister. His passion was hockey until age 13
when he broke his ankles in a motorcycle accident. It was then that
he became addicted to morphine and codeine.

By 16 he was dealing drugs in school, and by 18 he was a school
dropout. Ryan was convicted for the first time at age 19 and didn't
escape that lifestyle until he was 35. He was convicted three times
and spent a total 6 1/2 years in prison. When he got out of prison he
worked as a pressure welder in the oil patch. He had to quit that
because he has early stages of emphysema caused from a combination of
the welding and drugs such as crack cocaine.

"Kids don't know the damaging effects of smoke, any smoke," Ryan
said. "I used to be an athlete as a kid, now I can't run two city
blocks to save my life."

Ryan will also be speaking at the Heritage Inn at 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 7.

For more information visit the Clean Scene Network for Youth web site
at www.cleanscene.ca. or contact them toll free 1-866-481-DRUG (3784).