HELD HOSTAGE BY DRUGS

Recovering Addict Shares Frightening Tale of Dependency

Waiting to address the audience at Milton District High School, Paul
Christie sits hunched over with his head down as the highlights - ah,
make that lowlights - of his life are read out.

For those looking his way, an air of remorse and guilt is readily
apparent.

And for good reason.

Over a two-decade span - one that serves as a truly frightening
cautionary tale - Christie was shot, stabbed, repeatedly jailed,
deceived pretty much everyone who cared about him and often found
himself begging for food and waking up in ditches.

Behind each of these horrible turns was a substance abuse problem,
something he now battles to keep kids from ever having to suffer
through, doing so via his outreach website (paulchristie.ca) and
regular in-school visits with both students and parents.

"I ruined my life and my family's. That's what drugs do," said the
award-winning anti-drug advocate to a group of a dozen attentive
parents - having spoken to Grade 9 and 10 students at Milton District
earlier in the day. "Every time I drank or did drugs, bad things happened."

And those bad things started early.

Already drinking and using marijuana on a regular basis by the time he
was 15, despite coming from a good home, Christie and some friends
broke into a couple of homes during a beach party. He blacked out at
some point in the night, and when it was all over the million-dollar
houses were burned to the ground and he was under suspicion for arson.

Arrested a year-and-a-half later - once he was 17 and no longer a
juvenile - he was unable to properly defend himself because of his
hazy recollection of the night. So while firmly believing he didn't
actually set the fires, Christie received 20 months for each count
when his 'buddies' testified against him.

By that time he'd graduated to heroin, often shooting up in school -
flushing the needles down the toilet before heading off to class.

Along with starting to use drugs early, Christie knew early on that he
was an addict.

"It wasn't long before the drugs weren't fun anymore. That's one of
the things I really try to get through to the kids today," he
stressed, adding that he continued using because he was hooked and not
because the sensation of the drugs was still there. "The brain adapts
pretty quickly (to reaction of drugs), so the fun-ness is over pretty
quickly."

While the thrill of drugs was long gone, his dependency on them was
far from over.

With a $300 a week job in his early twenties not nearly covering his
habit - primarily crack cocaine at that point - Christie got a gun and
started robbing people.

One of the truly low points in his largely misspent life soon
followed.

"One night I robbed a gas station, bar and night club in the span of a
few hours. Shortly after I was arrested at my home, which I could see
my mom's home from. Ironically, she was woken up to see me getting
arrested."

Fast forward several years, and a now California-based Christie - back
in jail after a slew of impaired-driving arrests - would cause his
mother even more anguish.

"At this one detention centre there was a buzzer that would go off and
every time it did you had seven seconds to get back to your cell. So a
lot of times I'd be on the phone with my mom and that buzzer would go
off just a few minutes into the call and I'd have to hang up on her,"
recalled Christie, who through a "phone kill" instead of "phone call"
slip of the tongue offered a fitting picture of the emotional turmoil
his mother endured during those frequently interrupted talks. "God
bless my mom. It's amazing she's still alive. I put her through a lot
of bad stuff."

Christie's salvation - by no means an over-the-top characterization,
given the circumstances - would finally come during a would-be suicide
attempt in 1999.

Vowed to get clean

Truly looking at himself in the mirror for the first time in God knows
how long, he chose not to down a bottle of pills but instead vowed to
take control of his life. He did so through a nine-month stint at a
rehab clinic.

He didn't want to leave at the end - believing a relapse was imminent
- - and begged the facility's operators to let him stay on as "a janitor
or something."

"I was so happy to get off drugs. Having my mom and son (Jesse) see me
clean was amazing. If someone had offered me $20 million to trade
that, I would have said 'Get out of here.'"

Though more than a decade removed from his nightmarish addiction,
Christie stressed that he'll never be completely free from drugs. And
he's got the fidgety mannerisms - as well as Hepatitis C - to prove
it.

"You don't get clean. All you can do is try to stay clean and sober
for today," he said, noting that all seven members of his adolescent
drug group are now dead.

Addressing questions and concerns from parents following his
presentation, the anti-drug crusader said he's faced resistance from
elementary school educators, who've felt his story is too harsh for
pre-teens.

And given that it includes such grim accounts as ignoring a
then-toddler Jesse at Christmas to stick coke-filled needles into his
head - since the veins in his arms and legs were no longer accessible
- - he understands their reservations.

"Yes it's hard to hear this, but do you want these young kids dead on
a bathroom floor, because that's the alternative. We've got to get to
these kids earlier. By Grade 9 or 10, it's often too late."

He said today's youth are under the misguided notion that marijuana is
harmless - pointing to the 25-to-30-per cent rise in THC content since
its '60s and '70s 'experimental' era - and are being brainwashed with
'legalize pot' campaigns.

Regular use of marijuana, he said, can often lead to schizophrenia,
while the drug is sometimes laced with crystal meth - making it even
more dangerous.

Christie also sympathized with parent concerns that kids are trying
all kinds of different chemicals these days, like the
painkiller-turned-street drug OxyContin.

"Kids are even snorting household products. It's scary what they're
getting into."

Tips for detecting drug use

Christie said simply talking to your children and keeping tabs on
their grades, behaviour patterns and hygiene can be an effective tool
in detecting possible drug use.

"Kids that are consistently getting good grades and are clean
generally aren't doing drugs," he told parents.

"Red eyes are another big giveaway. Often the kids use Visine (to hide
red eyes), but they may still be squinting. If you find that in your
kid's room, there may be a problem."

Touching on some of the horror stories of kids he's counselled through
his website - barely maintaining his composure as he tells of one
young girl who had unprotected sex with three guys while high -
Christie says the government needs to do more to help parents and
educators safeguard children from drugs.

"It's not about me anymore, it's about these kids."