ADDICTIONS PROGRAM GRAD SAYS IT ALL STARTED WITH MARIJUANA

Students at Tilbury District High School were challenged last week by
Chatham-Kent police to take their life and turn it into something good.

"You have the power to make the choice to say yes or no to drugs,"
Sgt. Gabe Tetrault said, following a guest speaker from the Teen
Challenge organization, who discussed his own drug addiction and how
it affected his life.

Guest speaker Bobby, who declined to give his last name, said at age
20 he already has a long criminal record and has spent three months in
a provincial maximum security prison.

"I was pretty deep into drugs," Bobby said, adding that it led to
other crime, including assault, theft and drug trafficking.

Bobby said there were also a number of times where he got into trouble
with the law and came close to imprisonment.

It was just one year ago that he hit his "all time low" and was
imprisoned.

Now, 12 months later, he has nearly completed the Christian-based Teen
Challenge program that has one of the highest success rates for
rehabilitating substance abusers.

Bobby began experimenting with marijuana when he was 15. He said that
while "everyone was doing it," there was one friend he could always
count on to buy pot. On occasion, they would also steal it from the
friend's brother.

The social aspect of drugs soon became an everyday occurrence and
eventually led to harder drugs like cocaine, ecstasy and crack, Bobby
told the students.

He would also drink heavily.

"I don't want people making the same mistakes I did," he
said.

Bobby said he believes it's important for students to hear real life
stories "from people who have been around the block."

He said he doesn't feel as though he has lost anything from the
five-year span he spent under the influence of drugs.

"God caught me at the right time," he said, adding that he feels he's
one of the lucky ones.

"Some people in the program are twice as old as I am."

But there are some things he regrets not being able to take part in,
such as his own prom night and a Grade 12 diploma.

"You lose a lot of respect (from others)," he adds.

Bobby said he chose a religious addictions group because he had grown
up attending church and felt that it was the right path for him to
follow.

But he encouraged anyone, young or adult, to take the right steps to
set their life straight.

The Barrie resident also spoke at the three elementary schools in
Tilbury.

The presentations come on the heel of drug charges made several months
ago against several Tilbury-area Grade 8 students.