PROGRAM HELPED ADDICT TO GET OFF STREETS OF NANAIMO

Former Meth User Hit Bottom Before Turning Life Around. Drug Users
Benefit From Community Centre

Nanaimo's Ryan Glover credits Vancouver Island University's Adult
Basic Education program and a counsellor at a local recovery centre
for getting him off the street and keeping him away from the drug use
that almost ruined his life.

The former crystal methamphetamine addict will graduate from VIU this
summer and wants to help others kick their addictions and become
contributing members of society.

Glover, 36, understands what it is like to be homeless, involved with
criminals, addicted to crystal methamphetamine and without direction
and believes that if he can change others can as well. He knows what
it is like to be at the mercy of an addictive substance and how that
can lead to a life on the street. It hasn't been easy but since he
hit his bottom he has realized that life has a purpose and wants
others who are in similar situations to know they can do the same.

Glover hit bottom seven years ago.

"I was on the streets for a very long time," Glover said of his
former life. "I guess I started drinking and smoking pot. I had the
'I'll try anything once attitude.'"

Raves, parties and binge drinking Glover could handle. In 1999, he
tried crystal meth and learned what being a slave to a drug could be.

"The first time I tried meth, every other drug just seemed like a
waste of time," he said of the euphoric effect it had upon him.

From that moment on, all he could think about was getting his next
hit of crystal meth.

To afford the drug he pawned everything he owned, borrowed money from
friends and family. Finally he got involved in a small-time crime
organization but even they grew tired of his addiction, Glover said.

"That was when I hit bottom sometime around 2002," he said. "I'll
never forget it was around 4:30 a.m. one day and I was told by this
small-time crime gang I was no longer useful to them.

"I was tied down and tortured in a crack shack in Victoria. Then they
took me downtown and tossed me out on the street. I had never felt
such pain and a feeling of being alone."

Glover said he was sitting on the street feeling sorry for himself
when a passerby threw "some spare change at me."

It was at that moment, he realized something had to change.

"It was like I was in a bubble after that," he said. "I sat there and
watched people walking by and they seemed happy and content. I
finally realized there was something wrong with me."

It took him a while to gather the nerve to ask for help and he said
it was a long and difficult process.

Finally, he found himself in a Nanaimo detox centre and then at the
Surfside Recovery Centre where a counsellor pointed him towards
furthering his education.

"I don't think I even had my Grade 9 before that." Glover has
completed ABE's Grade 12 equivalency program and plans to graduate in
June with a Bachelor or Arts degree, majoring in Liberal studies.

He now mentors other ABE students who returned to school and helps
other addicts try to turn their lives around, something he would like
to continue doing once he graduates.

ABE changed his life and the help he received from teachers and other
staff at VIU made him want to help others. He now tutors other adults
who enter the program and also tries to help other addicts.

"It really is so gratifying. I don't do it because I feel I have to
do it," he said of giving back to others who are still suffering. "I
do it because it's something I really want to do."

Once he graduates, he has plans to create a broad-based network to
help other addicts in the city.

"This community of Nanaimo has supported me immensely and for the
first time in my life, I am establishing relationships and feel as
though I have a home."