THROUGH THE LENS OF DRUGS

A movie performer stood in the halls of Lakes District secondary on
Wednesday, unrecognized.

Vancouver's Randy Miller, one of those appearing in Through a Blue
Lens, which many of the students at the school had seen Oct. 25, was
approached by a couple of students.

"Is the guy from Through a Blue Lens in there?" one asked, gesturing
to the gymnasium.

"Not right now," said Miller with a bit of a smile. "They're showing a
video clip, then he'll be back in there."

"Where is he right now?"

"You're talking to him."

The students looked at Miller in shock, unable to believe this
healthy-looking man was the same one they saw in the movie on Monday.

"I did 13 years as an addict on the Eastside (of Vancouver)", he said.
"As of Dec. 23, I'll have been clean for six years."

When he announced this to the students in the gym, a loud burst of
applause interrupted his presentation. The film they had seen Monday
and Miller's talk had made it clear how tough it is to stay clean.

Through a Blue Lens is a movie shot mostly by Vancouver Police
officers patrolling the Eastside. They talk to addicts about what
their lives are like and how drugs have affected them. One of those
addicts is Miller, looking a lot different from what he does now.

It's quite a kick in the head for some of the students, especially
when Miller does his presentation afterwards.

"I like to wait a couple of days after they've seen the movie to talk
to them," he said. "They're not desenistized to what they saw in the
film."

He talked about some of the people shown in the movie, which was shot
in 1999. A lot of them are dead now, some from overdoses, some from
other causes.

"One of them was strangled by her roommate for 50 bucks."

What prompted Miller to get off drugs was some bad health news and
some good health news.

"I was in bad shape. They were talking about cutting off one of my
legs. I just got sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time."

The good health news came when he found out he didn't have
AIDS.

"It gave me a window of opportunity to make something of my life. If I
had AIDS, who wants to live with that? I didn't, so I could do
something with my life."

He works as a longshoreman in Vancouver most of the year, but spends
two or three months travelling across Canada, talking to students
about the truth of the drug scene. He figures he's talked to 60,000
students over the past three years.

"When I started, I was scared to get in front of an audience, but it's
a chance for me to give something back."

Through a Blue Lens can be seen on Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. on the Knowledge
Network, cable channel 4.