DELBERT SANKEY'S MISSION: KEEP KIDS OFF DRUGS

FOREST CITY - As the picture of a pitted, shriveled brain flashed
onto the screen, Delbert Sankey looked out at the Forest City High
School freshman and asked them to look at the photo.

He paused for a moment, letting the photo sink into the students' minds.

"My brain looks worse than that," Sankey said. "A mashed-up mush brain."

Sankey is a recovering drug addict. In and out of state prisons for
18 years, he has been clean for two years, is going to college,
writing a book and talking to young people about the horrors of drug
use every chance he can get.

Life sciences and health instructor Kathy Barkema said she always
ends the year with a unit on drugs.

"They've talked about substance abuse in class, ways to resist
pressure, what gets people into using," Barkema said. "We had Mr.
Sankey come in to give a real life perspective."

Sankey, 47, was born in Britt, went to school in Garner and now
works at Winnebago Industries in Forest City. But his life has taken
twists and turns many times because of drug use. And he wants young
people to listen to his story so that they can avoid the horrors of
his own experiences.

"I've done every drug on this list and probably more," Sankey told
his audience, jerking his thumb up at the overhead screen which
displayed more than 20 common kinds of drugs.

"It ruins bones, leads to mental illness," Sankey said. Then he
indicated a long row of prescription and over-the-counter drugs
lined up in back of him. "Now I have to do all these pills every day
just to function. Just to try to be a normal person."

Besides vitamins and calcium to rebuild a ravaged body, Sankey said
he needs to take pills for brain function, to calm his panic
attacks, to help with depression and to help him focus so he can keep a job.

"You want to end up going to college, getting a career and being
somebody," he said as he made eye contact with several students.
"Don't be like me!"

Then Sankey launched into his story.

He said he started smoking when he was 8, stealing cigarettes from
his dad. At 13, he discovered some of his father's "trucker's speed"
and he sampled some. Then he started selling it to his friends.

Even though his dad quit smoking cold turkey and later flushed the
pills down the toilet when he found out what his son was doing,
Sankey said that didn't stop him.

"I liked getting high and making money selling dope to buy all the
material things a youngster wants," he said.

He said he excelled in sports and in school but he quit competing
and his grades slipped when he turned to drugs.

"I just didn't care anymore," he said. "I thought I was making
friends but all they wanted was dope."

Things didn't get better in high school as he continued to use
alcohol and other drugs. He quit school and his dad kicked him out
of the house. He moved into a drug dealer's house and started using
and selling drugs.

When he finally got sick of the drug life, he joined the Marines,
made it through boot camp and made his family proud of him. His
training was in special infantry. "I was going to be one of the
elite," he said.

Then he made another bad life choice. His grandmother died and his
request for leave to attend her funeral was denied. "So I went AWOL," he said.

He ended up staying with a friend in Mason City who ran a shop for
drug paraphernalia. Although his friend eventually talked him into
going back to the service, the Marines didn't want him anymore so
they put him in a platoon for misfits and gave him an honorable
discharge a year later.

After entering the workforce, he used his paychecks to get back into
drugs and he soon entered into a drug- related marriage.

"I have two kids and their lives were very dysfunctional. We moved
around a lot because I was a drug dealer and always running from the
law," Sankey said. "I thought that was the life to have."

His life revolved around dealing, getting caught and thrown into
prison and coming home to the same old drug scene. His kids were
also doing drugs.

But they finally wised up.

"They saw a lot of horrible things. The kids got clean because they
got sick of seeing their dad go to prison," Sankey said. "They made
a decision. Then they had kids and didn't want them to see what they saw."

During his last stint in prison, Sankey said he turned to the Bible
because he had nowhere else to go.

He decided to clean up his act and go through drug rehabilitation
with the support of his new church family.

His church family helped him find a job and a new place to live.
"Then God blessed me with a good woman," Sankey said as he pointed
to his wife, Sheri.

But life without drugs hasn't been easy. Something or someone was
always waiting to try to reel him back in.

He said he reached the bottom in 2005 when things got so bad he
tried to take his own life. He ended up with a flesh-eating
infection from shooting anhydrous into his arm.

"Not because I wanted to do drugs but because I wanted to die,"
Sankey told the auditorium of freshmen. "But God has spared me
'cause he wanted me to share this message."

He is enrolled part-time in college and maintains a 3.0
grade-point-average even though he has had to withdraw often due to
health reasons. "I struggle hard with a brain half ate away," he said.

He wanted to go into a field where he could help kids. "But I can't
be a parole officer or be in human services because I'm a felon," he
stated. "I spent 18 years in prison, 18 years of wasted life."

But Sankey decided to make the best of his bad life experiences,
talking to young people and writing a book about this life titled
"Trying to Be a Winner On the Losing Side of Life."

"I gave my life to the Lord and he told me what to do," Sankey said.
"Ninety percent of the law enforcement officers after me my entire
life are now my friends. It's nice to know I don't have to be afraid."