WHY SAY 'NO'?

The problem with "Just Say No" is that many people don't.

Randy Haveson didn't. He said "yes" to everything, starting with booze.

"Why say 'no' to one of the things that allowed me to get out on a
dance floor?" he asked some 300 students in the Kate Buchanan Room at
Humboldt State University Sept. 20.

Why say "no" to marijuana when he could "smoke a big old fatty, stare
at my foot the next four hours and feel like I'm having a good time?"

Beer, liquor and pot improved his social life; cocaine boosted his
baseball career. A year after winning the splinter in the butt award
for logging pine time on the high school baseball squad, he was a
starter who batted second in the order, was featured in the local
paper and named the most improved player.

"Whatever you're doing, keep doing it," he recalled his baseball
coach telling him after tryouts.

"I could hit the ball," he recalled, giving all the credit to the
lines of coke that offered relaxation and improved focus first during
tryouts, then during the season. "Why say 'no'? I had girlfriends, I
was popular, I had good grades and I was a star on the baseball team."

He searched for a college with stringent criteria: party school, far
away from family and folks in Hermosa Beach and a chance to be all
that he could be while scouring fields for his beloved mushrooms.

"I almost came to Humboldt," he said to the delight of many of the
students. For once, HSU ended up the bridesmaid in a party-time
competition. Haveson went to Oregon State, where successive 1.55 and
1.44 GPAs earned him "academic probation on letterhead and everything."

His folks drew the line, and Haveson said he rallied with the mandated 2.5.

"I'd give the bare minimum and get people off my back," he said.

Haveson spoke at HSU a year ago on the same topic. Vice President of
Student Affairs Steve Butler distinctly recalls his reaction then.

"I'm thinking, 'Damn, I paid for this guy?'" Butler said. "Then, he
turns it around on the students."

The turn starts when he talks of leaving school to pursue life as a
drummer in a band. Not just any band, but one that Haveson said was
"so tight, so awesome" that it recorded six tracks in 10 studio
hours, got an offer from Albatross Records in Seattle and an inquiry
from Heart's manager about serving as an opening act on the band's tour.

The rub: his fellow bandmates were concerned about his drug problem.

"Screw you," Haveson said. "I made a decision. I quit the band."

Haveson pauses as the audience considers his choice.

"We are the product of the choices we make," he said. "Every choice
determines the level of or lack of success. What would have happened
if I made a different decision?"

The band never replaced its drummer. He moved to ticket scalping and
snorted, smoked or drank his profits. Dealing was out of the question.

"I tried, but I became my own best customer," he said. "Instead of
selling 5 grams and using 1, I'd use 5, sell a half and who knows
what happened to the other half."

Ultimately, he enrolled in San Diego State.

"I got expelled twice. I petitioned to get back in and got kicked out
again. The same week I was fired from my pizza delivery job."

It was May 16, 1984. He was 24 years old.

"How low can you go?" he said.

Apparently, lower. Weed, booze and coke -- the latter purchased with
borrowed money he had no intention of repaying -- weren't enough to
get him high.

The guy who used to look like Ricky Ricardo saw a stringy-haired,
white-faced man with black circles under his eyes staring back from
the mirror. He weighed 138 pounds -- 50 pounds less than he should
have been -- and considered slitting his wrists or throat.

Finally, he said, 'No.'

"I love alcohol," he said. "I love the way it smells, I love the way
it tastes. I love the way it burns all the way down."

They were the words he uttered to laughter and nods of agreement 45
minutes earlier. This time, silence.

"Nobody was telling me what to do if I had a problem," he said.

It took him 45 minutes to call a crisis line. In the past 22 years,
he hasn't said "yes" to alcohol, weed or cocaine. Instead, he
completed two degrees, including an M.A. in counseling. He runs two
businesses, one a halfway house for recovering students, started a
family and looks every day with some guilt at a 15-month-old
daughter. The father who abused everything he could get his hands on
gave his daughter a not-so-special gift.

"There was no alcoholism in my family," he said. "Don't tell me what
you do has no ramifications on someone else. I gave her a four times
greater chance of becoming an alcoholic."

"Students get fed up with hypocritical messages," Humboldt State
University Alcohol and Drug Specialist Vincent Feliz said. "We bring
out Randy because he delivers a message about student safety and
well-being. He's trusted and credible. Making light of the drinking
and drugs is the hook. Then it's dramatic, and everyone knows he's
speaking from the heart."

"Nobody ever taught me how to drink," he told the quiet students.
"They tell you to be a responsible drinker, but they don't tell you
how. It's like saying get in the pool, just don't drown."

Haveson started speaking as an outgrowth of his rehabilitation. Eight
years ago, it became full-time. Three years ago, business exploded
around his 0-1-2-3 formula for teaching college students how to drink
responsibly.

"Six months after he was here last time, students were still saying,
'That was the most impactful presentation I've ever seen,'" Butler
recalled. "He leads them down the path that it's good, all of the
excuses are good, until he crashes."

"We heard from UPD (University Police Department) and Judicial
Affairs about kids who were caught and written up," Feliz said. "They
were quoting Randy, saying they must have a problem or they blew it
because they couldn't follow 1-2-3. That's an informal evaluation of
his impact."

Randy Haveson's 0-1-2-3 plan to drink alcohol responsibly is a harm
reduction model designed for college students.

Haveson also talks to high school students about choices and to
parents about how to raise drug-free children. But his college work
as a speaker has taken off since embracing a formula for responsible
drinking that helps students avoid the suspensions, injuries, fights,
hangovers, academic and legal problems related to abuse of alcohol.

"It's so simple," Haveson said. "You can choose never to get in the
pool, or if you're in the pool, you can choose to never get in trouble."

0 -- "Sometimes, it's the best option. Before a job interview, a game
or a final.

If you're on medication. If you're under 21, it's illegal. The
consequences are different than for those over 21, especially with a DUI."

1 -- "One drink an hour, a drink being 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of
wine or a 1-ounce shot. I used to be a social drinker: any time a
friend would go drink, so shall I. But the liver can only metabolize
one drink per hour. How would you like it if you finished an hour's
work in the weight room then you were told to get right back in
there? And pot messes up the liver."

2 -- "Don't go drinking more than two times a week. Studies show the
ones who get in trouble drink three or more times a week, so don't."

3 -- "This is the hard one. Have no more than three drinks any time
you go out. I know a lot of you think what's the point? Some people
drink, some drink to get drunk. Can you do 0-1-2-3 from today for the
next month? Are you in control of your alcohol or is it in control of you?"

Haveson defined binge drinking as four or more drinks. Binge drinking
is the pattern of those who drink to get drunk and can be an
indicator of a substance abuse problem. A core survey of HSU students
in 1996 showed a direct correlation between drinking and academic
performance with "A" students reporting 3.3 drinks per week, "B"
students 4.8 per week, "C" students 6.1 per week and "D" and "F"
students, 9 per week. Two nights a week of four or more drinks put
students in the least desirable category.

As for pot use, Haveson said, "New studies have shown it's an
addictive drug. And the memory cells killed with pot won't come back.
It's a miracle I'm alive and have even one brain cell in my head. My
wife's had the same cell phone number for three years. Thank God for
speed dial. I can't remember it."

When told that some in Humboldt County would disagree, Haveson said,
"Someone has to start saying the emperor has no clothes. It takes 28
to 30 days to get it out of your system to start experiencing
withdrawal. The most common complaints I hear about withdrawal are
sleeplessness, anxiety and appetite control that's out of kilter."

Haveson said quitting pot for 45 days or trying to do 0-1-2-3 will
tell students if they have an issue. He reported the tide is
changing, a point underscored by HSU Alcohol and Drug Specialist Vincent Feliz.

"Whether it's rumor or reason, the alcohol and drug issues are part
of our retention issues," Feliz said. "We're saying enough is enough.
We've got a great Native American studies program, great science
programs, a beautiful area. The administration is tired of it, the
students are tired of it and parents are outraged by it.

"Until Humboldt County gets sick of it, it will keep happening. I've
been here since 1998 and the complacency is sickening. We're going to
ride the wave of tired students to a change, because it's about
safety and health."

Haveson's alcohol education program was sponsored by HSU and the
Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services. Grants from
the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the state Department
of Alcohol and Drug Programs provided some of the funding.

"Drinking or drugs is the major problem on college campuses," HSU
Vice President of Student Affairs Steve Butler said. "Any time we
have an issue on campus, whether it's personal, sexual, a DUI or a
death that devastates the community, drinking or drugs are at the heart."