MIKE RYAN TELLS STUDENTS OF BETTER PATH

Mike Ryan walked a long and torturous path to salvation.

On Wednesday, the 53-year-old recovering addict and career criminal
did his best to deter Fort Macleod children from following in his footsteps.

"We feel it's important we carry a message strongly to young people
that they don't want to do drugs," Ryan said. "Some of you have
already started down the path. I'm going to give you a little view of
where it leads."

Ryan is now chief executive officer of Clean Scene, an Alberta
organization dedicated to steering children away from drug use. His
two presentations at F.P. Walshe school were sponsored by Fort Macleod
Rural Crime Watch Association.

"I'm standing in front of a gentleman now that 20 years ago I wouldn't
stand in front of," said Des Grant, past president of the Alberta
Rural Crime Watch Association, as he introduced Ryan. "I would have my
back to the wall, protecting myself. This guy was one bad dude."

Grant told students at F.P. Walshe school that Ryan bought and sold
drugs and lived a life without concern for the people around him.

"Something happened when he was in the penitentiary that changed his
life," Grant said. "That something was he saw the light, he saw that
there are other ways to do things."

Ryan now spends his time visiting schools on behalf of Clean Scene,
sharing his story with children in the hopes they won't follow the
same path.

"He's been there, done that, and he's going to stop you from doing the
same thing," Grant said.

Ryan told the F.P. Walshe students he wasn't there to preach to them.
"I can tell you, Stop,' and you'd do it anyways."

Ryan began getting in trouble at the age of 13.

"I didn't fit in," Ryan told the students. "I didn't like it, and I
became a bully because I got treated badly. My potential changed at 13
forever." Ryan explained that in 1966 he chased another youth into the
corner of a hockey rink and hit him from behind at full speed. The
youth suffered three broken vertebrae.

"That young man is a quadriplegic because of me. That's what happens
when teammates get you doing things you wouldn't do otherwise. It was
my teammates who said, Mike, make sure he doesn't come back for the
next period'."

That incident solidified Ryan's reputation as a hard-hitting
defenceman, and helped elevate him to a Midget team the next fall.
However, the success was short-lived.

Ryan was hospitalized following a motorcycle accident brought on by
his own recklessness and spent eight days in a coma. He became
addicted to morphine, demerol and codeine, and his bright hockey
future ended.

"I didn't even blame myself. I blamed everybody else," Ryan said.
"That's what we do when we screw up. We blame somebody else."

He came out of hospital with a bad attitude, and soon found himself in
trouble at school and on the streets. Ryan quit school, ran away from
home and began experimenting with new drugs and alcohol.

"The downward spiral was well on its way," he said.

Ryan eventually developed a $2,000 a day drug habit that he financed
through crime, including robbing jewelry stores and banks.

He started selling drugs, and would not hesitate to use violence to
collect money or to scare people into doing his bidding.

"I never realized that when I started doing these things I would cause
the deaths of six people, that I was gradually killing myself," Ryan
said.

Ryan explained that during his life of crime he had little emotion or
feeling. Hardened by a hard life he had no qualms about using other
people for his own gain.

He contracted Hepatitis C from drug use, and will eventually face the
choice of undergoing a liver transplant, or dying.

"Those aren't things I like, but that's the way it is. I never thought
that would happen to me," Ryan said. "I'm 53 years old. I shouldn't be
considering my death at this point in life, I should be looking at
being a grandparent, not being a messed-up former addict."

Ryan warned the students not to be fooled into thinking there is
anything glamorous or rewarding about selling and using drugs.

"Drug traffickers may make some money at it, but there are three
places they end up -- jails, institutions and death," Ryan said.
"Most of the people I trafficked drugs with are already dead."

Ryan told the students peer pressure is responsible for most teens
experimenting with drugs.

"The No. 1 driver of drug use today is you pushing each other into
doing it," he said.

He warned them against believing marijuana is harmless. It's likely
the person offering them a joint has laced it with crystal meth, a
highly addictive drug.

Ryan cautioned students against negative self-talk -- a process
through which people convince themselves they have no worth and are
unlikely to succeed. He also spoke of the dangers of blindly following
the crowd, of being talked into doing things that are bad because you
don't want to stand up to the others in the gang.

On April 9, Ryan marks 18 years of sobriety. A native elder helped
Ryan in prison, and he successfully completed a rehab program.

Ryan said while he escaped from a life of addiction and crime before
it killed him, many of his friends didn't. And he urged the F.P.
Walshe students to follow a different path.

"Think about your future," Ryan encouraged the students. "If you play,
you're going to pay."