'POT BAD': SKID ROW CEO

Joe Roberts grew up in a loving middle-class home in Midlands, Ont.
- -- yet all it took were a few wrong choices in his teens and he ended
up on skid row.

There was nothing his parents could have done differently to prevent
his slide into drugs and crime, he told a joint meeting of the
Qualicum Beach and Parksville Chambers of Commerce Thursday in the
Qualicum Beach Civic Centre.

It was his own actions that got him in trouble, but others and his
own efforts got him out of it, he told the 200 present.

Contrary to popular belief, "Pot isn't a harmless drug," he said, as
it blurs the mind and makes it easier to slide into harder drugs
while high on grass.

Sleeping under a bridge in Vancouver's east side, he got to the point
where all he wanted was $10 for a fix. The day he hit rock bottom he
sold his shoes. Then his family, whom he'd alienated, suggested he
come home for a visit.

He returned to Ontario, went into rehab, enrolled in Loyalist
College, graduated on the dean's list and got a job with Minolta
selling photocopiers.

In the late 1990s he got in on the ground floor with a company that
took off during the dot-com blitz and suddenly he was a rising CEO.
By age 35 he'd made his first million and today he spends his time
speaking to adults and kids in an effort to turn lives around. His
fee for this speech went to a youth foundation, he said.

His advice was leavened by humour and self-effacement and Roberts
connected with the crowd, which gave him a standing ovation.

Live a goal-oriented life. Make every day count. Negotiate what you
want. There's more to you than you can see. "People will forget what
you say and what you do, but people will never forget how you make
them feel," he said.

At age 11 he met and shook the hand of Terry Fox as he ran his way
across southern Ontario, and it left him with a residue of hope.

In July of 1991, living out of a shopping cart and sleeping under a
bridge, he began looking "for the better part of me. I found it
partly because of the better part of you," he said, honouring the
help he got from others.

His book Don't Buy the Lie About Getting High exhorts youth to avoid
the pitfalls that killed many of those he knew on skid row, and
almost claimed him.

When one of the younger people in the audience, student Alicia Vanin,
asked him what exactly we could do as individuals to inspire hope in
others, he said: "Good question. The best thing we can do is lead by
example. Get involved in volunteerism... Every single one of us has a
story to tell and a passion... Get out there and get involved."