FRANK TALK ABOUT DRUGS

A Lower Mainland man who was rendered mute and semi-paralyzed after a
heroin overdose spoke bluntly to Alberni Valley students last week
about what drug abuse did to him.

Coquitlam resident Jade Bell spoke to Valley high school and middle
school students Thursday morning, but it was VAST students he wanted
to reach out to that afternoon, he said.

"These are high risk kids - just like I was," Bell, 34, said through a
speaking aid in an interview with the News.

"I feel for them."

And Bell knows of what he speaks. A cocaine-heroin overdose in 1997
left him unconscious and in a coma for a month.

He awoke briefly, but lapsed into a coma again.

He finally awoke for good, but to a life forever changed.

He was robbed of bodily movement, speech and sight. But his cognitive
ability was left intact, although it was now trapped inside him.

Bell is confined to a wheelchair and requires 24-hour a day care.

He speaks through the use of a computer, where he taps Morse code into
a sensor, the signal of which is fed into a program and then out
through a computer voice.

And speak to the students he did - frankly.

He started using drugs at age 15, and graduated to heroin and crack by
age 18, Bell told a packed audience in VAST's main classroom.

He quickly developed a $200-a-day habit, leading to his fateful overdose.

"Life spared me for a purpose," he said.

"I lost everything, and you have everything to lose yet."

Bell's played a 10-minute video for students that left no illusion
about the effect of drug abuse.

Labeled disturbing, the video showed graphic footage of dead overdose
victims, their bodies locked in a gnarled curl, the fatal plunged
syringe nearby.

Also shown were teens seemingly no older than the audience.

However, their pale, gaunt appearance, some with rotted front teeth,
denoted drug addiction.

Before leaving, Bell summoned his girlfriend and aide Sabrina Aven, to
lift him from his chair so he could shake hands with and hug audience
members. Several shed tears when they did.

Bell has adjusted to his life, but there are some things he misses.

"I miss seeing everything; I especially miss looking at my lady," he said.