EX-NFL PLAYER TELLS STUDENTS HOW DRUGS SNUFFED OUT CAREER, NEARLY ENDED HIS
LIFE

Alvin Powell Finds His New Role As Counsellor The Most Rewarding Yet

Alvin Powell has held several jobs over the years: professional football
player, Britney Spears' bodyguard and even youth pastor. But he says it's
his role in drug prevention that is most fulfilling.

"That's what God put me on this Earth to do," Mr. Powell told a packed
auditorium of students at Rideau High School yesterday. "I'm great at what
I do."

Mr. Powell knows what a life of drug taking is like. In the midst of an
up-and-coming career with the Miami Dolphins and Seattle Seahawks in the
National Football League in the 1980s, he became addicted to cocaine. He
told the students how he sacrificed everything -- his family, career, fame
and money -- for drugs. "By football season, I'm smoking (enough) joints to
make Bob Marley look like Mickey Mouse."

He then told his rapt audience how he lost eight days of his life on a
cocaine binge. "Cocaine made marijuana look like garbage."

At 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds, it's not hard to imagine Mr. Powell as a
football player. His booming voice could be heard outside the auditorium
doors. And he quickly captivated the students, many of whom sat motionless
through a two-hour speech that went well into their lunch period. They
laughed when Mr. Powell recounted his womanizing days and they gasped when
they heard how much money he used to make weekly in the NFL. But a hush
filled the auditorium when he spoke of how his mother was so enraged by his
spiral into addiction, she packed her bags and gave up on him.

When he finished, they gave him a standing ovation and clambered to meet
him and ask for autographs. Even as he walked through the hallway, students
rushed to shake his hand and tell him how touched they were by his story.

And it was quite a story. For Mr. Powell, addiction to drugs led to an
early exit from football, divorce, relapse after relapse and an attempted
suicide. "It is the sole purpose of drugs and alcohol to kill you," he said.

After his football career collapsed, Mr. Powell went from being a
multimillionaire to asking neighbours if he could mow their lawns. A friend
got him work as a celebrity bodyguard, including a stint serving pop star
Britney Spears.

However, Mr. Powell soon decided the celebrity-serving life was not for
him, a decision he attributes to his religious faith. Mr. Powell, an
admittedly religious man, believes it was not sheer luck, but a greater
plan that kept him alive to encourage others. "It's what God wants me to do."

Today, Mr. Powell is director of prevention services at the Montreal-based
Saving Station Foundation, a non-profit organization he co-founded to fight
substance abuse. Mr. Powell gives motivational speeches, provides
counselling and sets out to rescue those who are already addicted.

Over the years, he's brought addicts home and hauled prostitutes off the
streets before they destroy themselves. It's not always easy. "A lot of
(the situations) deal with violence. You're trying to extricate someone
away from the thing they value most, and they're not willing to give that
up. They're going to experience extreme pain physically, emotionally and
psychologically. It's not a pretty sight."

Not surprisingly, speaking engagements are among the easier parts of his
job. "My goal is to basically touch the kids in a way that they understand
the progression of drug addiction. They need to understand that it's a good
time, but results in a very bad end."

His message targets students because they have just begun to make life
decisions. This is a method of prevention, Mr. Powell said.

"The kids are moved and I take no responsibility for that," he said. "It's
a spiritual thing. I know what's being channelled through me, and I see the
impact that it's having on the children.

"It affects all of them differently," Mr. Powell said later of his speech.
"But they're affected."

Indeed, as students filed out of the auditorium, they chatted excitedly
about Mr. Powell.

"Are you scared now?" one student asked her friend.

"Pot's OK," the friend replied. "Just don't do coke."