News (Media Awareness Project) - CN ON: Editorial: All Can Learn From Drug Horror Story |
| Title: | CN ON: Editorial: All Can Learn From Drug Horror Story |
| Published On: | 2003-02-28 |
| Source: | Cambridge Reporter, The (CN ON) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-20 23:29:58 |
ALL CAN LEARN FROM DRUG HORROR STORY
It wasn't the first time George Chuvalo brought his hard-hitting story to
Cambridge - and we hope it's not the last.
Every time you hear the former Canadian heavyweight boxing champ's battle
to save his family, it's impossible not to share his unending pain and shed
a tear. He tells the story of how heroin addiction destroyed four members
of his family.
His horrible story is intended to scare young people away from drugs, yet
it offers as much - perhaps more - sage advice for parents.
The Ontario Crime Control Commission brought Chuvalo to Cambridge to tell
his story. The commission uses the charismatic athlete in cross-province
tours to talk to teenagers about the horrors of drug abuse and addiction.
Wednesday, he was at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School, where students
sat in rapt attention in the school cafeteria as Chuvalo began his story.
His son Jessie began an addiction with heroin in 1984. A year later, he
died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. By then, his two brothers, Steve
and George Lee, were addicted too, to heroin and whatever prescription
drugs they could get.
Students heard how the brothers robbed stores and veterinary clinics to
feed their addiction, failed battles to beat their demons. George Lee died
of a drug overdose in 1993. Chuvalo's wife Lynne took her own life with
prescription pills two days after her son's funeral.
Steve died of an overdose in 1996, after planning to go clean and join his
dad in anti-drug talks at schools.
Chuvalo has two surviving children in his heart to carry as he tells his
story, again and again.
Yet with all the drug horror Chuvalo recounts, he takes on blame himself.
His boxing career took him him away from his children too often; his kids
watched their dad taking punches in the ring.
Setting moral standards for your children isn't enough. Children thrive in
the loving glow of parental support, not the shadow of a career, he says.
How many parents have the courage to talk so honestly about their own
failures, while trying to help others avoid the hellfire of drug addiction?
It wasn't the first time George Chuvalo brought his hard-hitting story to
Cambridge - and we hope it's not the last.
Every time you hear the former Canadian heavyweight boxing champ's battle
to save his family, it's impossible not to share his unending pain and shed
a tear. He tells the story of how heroin addiction destroyed four members
of his family.
His horrible story is intended to scare young people away from drugs, yet
it offers as much - perhaps more - sage advice for parents.
The Ontario Crime Control Commission brought Chuvalo to Cambridge to tell
his story. The commission uses the charismatic athlete in cross-province
tours to talk to teenagers about the horrors of drug abuse and addiction.
Wednesday, he was at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School, where students
sat in rapt attention in the school cafeteria as Chuvalo began his story.
His son Jessie began an addiction with heroin in 1984. A year later, he
died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. By then, his two brothers, Steve
and George Lee, were addicted too, to heroin and whatever prescription
drugs they could get.
Students heard how the brothers robbed stores and veterinary clinics to
feed their addiction, failed battles to beat their demons. George Lee died
of a drug overdose in 1993. Chuvalo's wife Lynne took her own life with
prescription pills two days after her son's funeral.
Steve died of an overdose in 1996, after planning to go clean and join his
dad in anti-drug talks at schools.
Chuvalo has two surviving children in his heart to carry as he tells his
story, again and again.
Yet with all the drug horror Chuvalo recounts, he takes on blame himself.
His boxing career took him him away from his children too often; his kids
watched their dad taking punches in the ring.
Setting moral standards for your children isn't enough. Children thrive in
the loving glow of parental support, not the shadow of a career, he says.
How many parents have the courage to talk so honestly about their own
failures, while trying to help others avoid the hellfire of drug addiction?
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