AUTHOR BLAMES HEROIN ADDICTION FOR ARREST

TORONTO -- Author Stephen Reid says he became addicted to drugs at the age
of 11 after being offered methadone by a pedophile doctor, The National
Post reported Saturday.

In an interview from the Victoria prison where he is awaiting trial for
allegedly robbing a bank and shooting at police, Reid also said he was
planning to kill himself in jail, The Post said in report from Vancouver.

A court-appointed psychiatrist convinced him that he owed it to his
children to hang on.

"I was clutching this plastic bag to my chest, and [was] ready to pull it
on my head and just get out of here," he said.

The psychiatrist, sent to assess whether he was criminally responsible for
his actions, told him to stop thinking about himself and instead to think
of the needs of his daughters, Sophie, 10, and Charlotte, 16.

"It's not about me. I realize that now," he said. "It's about being there
for those kids in whatever way I can."

Reid said his body aches from heroin withdrawal but his hands have stopped
shaking and he's beginning to think he'll make it.

Reid said he's been on heroin since he was a teenager. "A doctor gave it to
me. . . . I started doing drugs when I was 11. It started with methadone,
then went on to heroin."

He said the drugs were used to coerce him into sex.

"He was a predator," he said.

He credited his wife, poet Susan Musgrave, saying she has given him
strength with her daily visits to the Vancouver Island Correctional Centre.

Reid, who faces 10 charges, including attempted murder and robbery, would
not discuss the incident but said he is sorry for what happened.

"This wasn't a nice piece of work," he said. "Shooting at people, or
allegedly shooting at people . . . it's not something I'm proud of."

Reid was jailed after a series of infamous bank heists in the 1970s. In
1986, while serving time, he married Musgrave, who edited his critically
acclaimed book Jackrabbit Parole. On his release, he found himself in the
spotlight, both because of his writing and because of his famous wife.

"It was hard to handle," he said.

He said he went "34 months clean and sober" before getting back into drug
abuse this year, and began a downward spiral that led to his arrest two
weeks ago.