EX-CON MESSMER SCARES STUDENTS STRAIGHT

What does it take to get teenagers who think they know it all to sit up and
take notice of good advice?

A former U.S. Marine turned drug trafficker, ex-convict and now speaker,
Dale "Mad Dog" Messmer did the trick Wednesday as nearly 200 Righetti High
School incoming freshman heard his message: "You do the crime, you do the
time. It's your decision.

For more than an hour, Messmer walked the cafeteria stage, gesturing as he
told the teens about his first-hand experiences as a convict caught for
trafficking drugs, wanted for money laundering, racketeering, conspiracy and
weapons charges. He told about the people he met, the friends he lost, the
lives he saw destroyed by drugs and drug-related violence.

"It was really inspirational," said freshman Anna Rodriguez. "It really made
me stop and think about my decisions and my future. I know some people it
should affect. For some people, it won't make a difference, but for the
smart people, it will."

As students sat, mesmerized, Messmer focused on the choices people made,
sometimes in an instant, which changed their lives, or ended them.

He talked about the increasing stringent drug laws that can strip a convict
of everything he owns, about the sheer number of people whose sole
responsibility it is to seek out drug criminals and put an end to their
business.

"Do not let anyone else make your choices for you," he said. "I don't care
what your homies say, your friends, your buds, your pals, because you are
the one who will pay the consequences for our choices."

Messmer said he graduated from Kansas State University before being drafted
by the U.S. Marines. He spent 66 months in Vietnam, earning three Purple
Hearts for wounds he received.

He later became a bodyguard, a restaurateur and a charter pilot.

But he missed the adrenaline rush. When he was offered a job flying cocaine
for Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel, he bit at the chance.

"My own wife didn't know I was trafficking," he said. "I was above
suspicion, but I got caught anyway."

With stories the teens could relate to, he explained that everyone involved
in drugs gets involved in violence and eventually gets caught, whether they
overdose first or authorities catch up to them by a mere stroke of luck.

"The odds are not in your favor," he said. "You are one person. There are
thousands and thousands of people in law enforcement and citizens who are
sick and tired of drugs."

"Oh my god," one girl in the crowd gasped as Messmer told a story of a teen,
caught for possession of cocaine for sale, who was sentenced to 80 years in
prison.

"Under the law, you must serve half your sentence in prison before being
released on parole," he said. "Jose will be 58 years old before he gets out.
That means he'll be 58 years old before he can go for a ride in a car, eat a
hamburger, drink a cold soda pop, watch what he wants on TV, go out on a date."

Messmer cited the story of Escobar, who eluded agents for years before being
placed in a luxurious Colombia prison built just for him. His escape from
that prison led to a 16-month search which ended when he was caught, shot
and killed on the roof of the safehouse he'd been hiding in.

"The police caught the most powerful, most influential drug dealer in the
world," he said. "What makes you think they won't catch you?"