RAMBLERS LEARN ABOUT MAKING RIGHT CHOICES

Fredericton RCMP Officer Spills the Beans About Dangers of 'Sex and
Drugs and Rock and Roll' Lifestyle

AMHERST - The hard, cold, brutal facts of the drug life were imparted
to the Amherst Ramblers hockey team last night at the Super 8 hotel by
an RCMP officer who spent many years in the drug underworld as an
undercover officer.

"This is not a presentation you will see in your classroom," said
Sergeant Ross Gorman of the Fredericton RCMP in his rapid-fire
delivery. "This presentation is going to be sex, drugs and rock and
roll, the way I saw it on the streets when I was buying dope in
east-end Vancouver.

"I'm not about to embellishing the facts," said Gorman, who also spent
10 years as a high school teacher. "If it's a drug that won't kill
you, then I'll tell you it won't kill you. If it's a drug that will
kill you, then I will tell you that it will kill you."

He started off by speaking about marijuana.

"If you smoke a joint tonight, are you going to be addicted? No,
you're not," said Gorman.

He said if you smoke it day after day, you're going to eventually need
more and more to get the same high you did on that first day.

"Don't ever let anyone tell you it's a soft drug. It's not a soft
drug," said Gorman. "It might have been years ago, but the potency in
marijuana is extremely strong compared to how it used to be."

Gorman then upped the stakes and talked about cocaine.

"The problem with cocaine dealers is they take one pound and make two
out of it by substituting it with other items," said Gorman.

"It's called stepping on it or tramping it down. They're diluting it
with any kind of white powder they can find. They often use gyprock or
baby lactose."

He said they'll also use hair spray as a bonding agent to press the
cocaine into bricks.

Gorman talked about his experiences with people who use cocaine and
heroin, and also talked about Ecstasy and methamphetamine.

"The thing about Ecstasy is that it now has traces of methamphetamine
in it because it wasn't addictive enough," said Gorman.

"It wasn't as addictive as the sellers would like and they weren't
getting enough repeat customers, so they put methamphetamine in it to
make it extremely addictive."

Gorman also talked about steroids.

"Do they work? Yes. Are they always pure? No," said Gorman. "They
don't make any money off of you by selling you the real thing."

He talked about the side effects of severe acne, overgrown heart
muscles and infertility that come with steroid use.

"It overloads the body with testosterone and tells your body it no
longer has to produce it," said Gorman. "Your sperm count goes down,
and you can't have children.

"You might walk around with big muscles but your pee-pee doesn't work
any more."

After the talk, Ramblers coach Corey Crocker said the idea behind the
talk was to educate the players on the dangers of drugs.

"You're only going to be a hockey player for so long and you're going
to be a person for the rest of you life," said Crocker. "It's about
making the right choices.

"It's important that our players want to learn about this and educated
our community about the importance of being drug free. These kids can
be role models and I think 22 players leave here tonight knowing the
dangers of drugs and the challenges they meet in life."

Ramblers captain Adam Chipman was front row centre at the talk and
said he is looking forward to spreading the word about the dangers of
drugs.

"He really kept our attention in there," said Chipman. "As a drug-free
team, the message we want to get out there is that if you want to be a
success in life or be a good athlete, then don't do drugs."