SPEAKER TELLS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF DRUGS

Addict Has Turned Life Around

He stood in the gym at Mitchell District High School (M DHS) facing
interested and tired faces of Grade 10 students.

He began talking to the students with brutal honesty about his years
of drug and alcohol addiction.

Paul Christie told the students about how his addiction ruined his
life and how every day he still has to think about what he did while
under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Christie's battle started at the age of 14 with cigarettes and
marijuana. He failed Grade 8 and became an alcoholic. At the age of
15, he and two friends broke into a house to get more alcohol for a
party. One of the friends lit a fire and two houses were destroyed
that night. The two friends blamed Christie and at the age of 16 he
was sent to a psychiatric hospital because of the arson.

In the hospital he was able to keep up his drug and alcohol addiction.
By then he had started doing cocaine. After he was released, Christie
got a gun and started to rob businesses to help feed his habit. "I
have never done anything bad unless I have been under the influence of
drugs or alcohol," he said.

He was eventually caught, but he broke out of jail and went to
California. He left with $3,000 and within eight-to-10 hours it was
gone and Christie found himself so badly beaten he was in hospital for
about a week.

Christie continued to live in California, having his parents send him
money, lying that he needed it for rent or food. It all went to drugs.

"I took everything from my parents - their car, the home and even each
other. They are no longer together because of me," he said.

In 1991, Christie got a pick up truck and started doing yard work. In
the first 12 months he had been arrested eight times for impaired
driving and spent 30 months in jail.

"I'm not bragging. I'm disgusted with what I have done. I'm telling
you this hoping you won't make the same mistakes," he said.

Immediately after his release in California, Christie was arrested for
the thefts in Canada. The judge looked at his prior convictions and
gave Christie an ultimatum - no jail if he promised to get clean. He
agreed but hours later he was in a crack house where he met another
addict and they had a child together.

The two lived together for a while but Christie's addiction was so bad
his girlfriend left with their son.

The Christmas of 1998, Christie convinced his girlfriend to let him
have their son for the holidays.

"I was very excited because it was the last thing I was ever going to
do. I was so important for me to have my son remember me as a good
dad," he said.

Christie said he planned to kill himself once his son left after the
holidays.

But Christie's drug dealer showed up with a large amount of drugs and
Christie spent the holidays shooting up in the bathroom, his son and
girlfriend outside crying, begging him to stop.

"That's the power of drugs. I was standing in the bathroom, trying to
get a broken needle into the vein in my forehead because it was the
only one I had left," he said. "If I had a picture of me that day to
show you, you would never do drugs."

Christie's attempt to kill himself failed and that was his turning
point. He checked himself into detox.

"With drugs, there is no control. I am clean, I have been for eight
years, but I still have a devil on my shoulder," he said.

Christie now has custody of his son and a great relationship with his
parents.

Christie said the reason he does the presentations it to help save
that one person struggling with drug addition. He said 80 per cent of
high school students try drugs, three in 10 of those become addicts
and of those only one in 100 get better.