Pubdate: Wed, 07 Feb 2007
Source: High River Times (CN AB)
Copyright: 2007 High River Times
Contact: http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=61&x=contact
Website: http://www.highrivertimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/781
Author: Gina Devlin

ADDICT CRACKS DOWN TO HELP STUDENTS

A former drug addict who spent six and a half years in prison is 
coming to High River to speak to students.

Mike Ryan, founder of Clean Scene Network for Youth, will be in High 
River on Feb. 7 speaking to students about drug prevention and 
choices. Ryan will touch on his personal experiences with substance 
abuse and a criminal lifestyle to try and teach students the 
consequences of the poor choices they make.

"We want to make sure kids understand the damages of getting involved 
in drugs and a criminal lifestyle," Ryan said.

Founded in 2002, Clean Scene is a drug prevention program for 
schools. The two speakers, Ryan and Corry Grunsky, both have many 
years of experience as addicts and having criminal lifestyles, as 
well as in psychology. Clean Scene is a choice-based organization.

Ryan has spoken to about 150, 000 students as part of Clean Scene, 
and about 500,000 in past 15 years. Ryan presents mostly to Alberta 
students, but has also spoken in B.C., Saskatchewan and the Northwest 
Territories. His objective is to reach every student in every school 
every three years. The future goal is to have a different speaker every year.

Ryan says the more kids that are involved in drugs, the more problems 
there are for the community. One drug trafficker can cost a community 
$1 million.

Ryan grew up in an average home with good parents. He has an older 
brother and a younger sister. His passion was hockey until age 13 
when he broke his ankles in a motorcycle accident. It was then that 
he became addicted to morphine and codeine.

By 16 he was dealing drugs in school, and by 18 he was a school 
dropout. Ryan was convicted for the first time at age 19 and didn't 
escape that lifestyle until he was 35. He was convicted three times 
and spent a total 6 1/2 years in prison. When he got out of prison he 
worked as a pressure welder in the oil patch. He had to quit that 
because he has early stages of emphysema caused from a combination of 
the welding and drugs such as crack cocaine.

"Kids don't know the damaging effects of smoke, any smoke," Ryan 
said. "I used to be an athlete as a kid, now I can't run two city 
blocks to save my life."

Ryan will also be speaking at the Heritage Inn at 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 7.

For more information visit the Clean Scene Network for Youth web site 
at www.cleanscene.ca. or contact them toll free 1-866-481-DRUG  (3784).
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MAP posted-by: Elaine