BOXING LEGEND'S GREATEST BATTLE OUTSIDE RING

Canadian Boxing Legend Lost Three Sons To Drug Abuse.

George Chuvalo faced more people in the ring than listened to his anti-drug
message at Thornhill Secondary School Wednesday evening.

But his chilling descriptions of how drugs virtually destroyed his family
left his small audience just as dazed as the 64 fighters he knocked out
during his professional boxing career.

The former Canadian heavyweight boxing champion was the featured speaker at
what was billed as a community forum on crime, sponsored by the Ontario
Crime Control Commission and hosted by Thornhill MPP Tina Molinari.

As a forum it failed, with about 30 people in attendance and only two
asking the 65-year-old Mr. Chuvalo questions at the end of his
presentation. A third person wondered if schools in the area had done
enough to publicize the evening, leading to a verbal skirmish with school
staff.

But as an illustration of the devastating toll of illegal drugs, Mr.
Chuvalo's raw, harrowing and graphic narrative was gripping.

With stark words, he described his sons' addictions to heroin, their
numerous overdoses, their crimes and their eventual deaths.

"Horrible things can result from drugs," said the man who unflinchingly
faced such opponents as Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and
George Foreman during his career.

Telling of "my personal family holocaust", Mr. Chuvalo related the
circumstances leading to the suicides and overdose deaths of three of his
four sons and his first wife. His youngest son, Jesse, shot himself at 20,
nine months after becoming addicted following a painful injury. George Jr.
died of an overdose, wife Lynne committed suicide two days later.

Steven died of an overdose just a short while after agreeing to join his
father in taking the anti-drug message to schools.

"Steven doesn't fit the public perception of a heroin addict," Mr. Chuvalo
said. "He was handsome and articulate. He could belong to anyone's family."

He told, in detail, of the time Steven overdosed 15 times in the space of
two months, how he lost control of his bodily functions, how he sneaked out
of hospital emergency rooms, where his father had taken him, to search for
another heroin dose.

"Every time I tell that story, I get sick to my stomach," Mr. Chuvalo said.

But it was just as hard for him to tell of his sons' armed robberies of
drug stores in search of pills and their inept, pill-popping escapes that
would have been comical if they were not so tragic.

Mr. Chuvalo said his youngest son, Jesse, started taking heroin to relieve
pain he suffered as a result of an accident.

"The other two started because they weren't afraid," he said. "No one
starts off with crack or heroin. They all start with that first cigarette,
that first drink."

He said most addicts then move step by step to more potent and dangerous
drugs until the step to heroin doesn't seem so frightening.

"I think about young people and how they willingly and recklessly take
drugs," he said, sitting hunched over at the front of the school gymnasium,
the pain of his family's experience etched in his face.

"Puberty is when you make some of the most important, monumental decisions
of your life. People don't start smoking or drinking when they're 35 or 50.
They start when they are young, when they're teenagers.

"I don't understand why any young person would start to smoke today," he
said, adding if Health Canada warnings that appear on cigarette packages
were found on cans of tomato soup, "who in their right mind would drink
tomato soup?"

Mr. Chuvalo was harshly critical of Hollywood movies and advertisers and
what he called their glorification of drugs and alcohol.

"No wonder young people do drugs and think they can get away with it," he said.

He said education is key to keeping young people away from drugs; not just
drug awareness programs, but continuing education.

"When you see a future for yourself, you feel good about yourself and
you're less likely to try drugs," he said.

Frank Mazzilli, commission co-chairperson, said the government has to make
its public education more effective, noting young people "are pretty
responsible when it comes to impaired driving because they've heard the
don't-drink-and-drive message".

He also hinted the OCCC might advocate tougher penalties for drug users.

"Drug dealers wouldn't be there if the consumers weren't there," Mr.
Mazzilli said. "Proceeds of crime come from the public who buy drugs.
Consumers are a component we have to come to grips with."