FORMER ADDICT TALKS OF HOPE

Choices and how they affect lives are the message of a man featured in the
documentary Through a Blue Lens

Grade-eight students sat transfixed earlier this week while recovering drug
addict Randy Miller delivered a powerful presentation about his life on the
streets and his struggle to recovery.

The former resident of Vancouver's downtown east end was known to most as
many had previously watched a video, Through a Blue Lens, that tells the
story about Miller and other addicts who lived in the streets.

Miller talked about what it is like to live in the skids, feeding his drug
habit, his hallucinations, his brushes with death, and how he got there.

The film and his life are a sad tale about someone who made the wrong
choices. But the presentation also carries a message of hope, as Miller had
the courage to change his life around and kick his drug habit. "This is all
about making the right choices," he said.

When Through a Blue Lens was made, Miller used half to one gram of heroin
and cocaine a day. Today, he appears confident as he addressed an
auditorium full of teenagers and quite unlike the man who appeared in the film.

Again and again he talked about choices and how important it is to make the
right ones. At the age of 17 Miller was playing Junior A hockey and had a
promising future ahead of him as an athlete. But his father used him as a
"punching bag" and he left home as soon as he could. For Miller, the wrong
choices included hanging around with a girl who got him addicted to heroin.

"I did heroin straight for 30 days," he said, explaining how drugs changed
his life. "There went my hockey career."

Eventually Miller "graduated" to Vancouver's east end. "It's a totally
different lifestyle. There are kids from everywhere in Canada because you
can survive there in winter."

Miller asked how many students wanted to follow in his footsteps. No one
raised their hand.

According to Miller, there are 5,000 to 6,000 active drug addicts in
Vancouver and most of them started by smoking pot. "It's a gateway drug.
I'm not saying it will happen to everyone of you but it happens to some.

"Do you know any potheads that are Grade A students?" he asked.

He talked about how the addicts filmed in Through a Blue Lens were doing
and told students that two of the four people who had been filmed were now
dead.

One girl was killed by her roommate over $50. "Down there your life isn't
worth anything," he said. He talked about the sex trade. "I've seen girls
as young as 11 selling their ass on the corner."

Although many addicts end up dead, Miller survived. His family didn't
forget him and one day his brother contacted him and told him that he was
an uncle. He had a couple of nephews. For the first time in a long time
Miller felt a wave of emotion. He had nephews and he'd never even met them.

"You always have to have hope," he said.

Miller found out there is life after the streets. "You have to make your
own choices."

Luckily this time, he made the right one.