Pubdate: Thu, 17 May 2012
Source: Whitby This Week (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Metroland Media Group
Contact:  http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/whitby
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3823
Pubdate: 17 May 2012

WHITBY STUDENTS GET STARK LESSON IN PERILS OF DRUG USE

It seems impossible to imagine: a Grade 9 student filling syringes
with cocaine and heroin and injecting the drug cocktail in his high
school bathroom.

But it happened to former drug addict Paul Christie, as did the armed
robberies to support his growing drug dependence, the jail sentence
for arson, the escape from a Niagara police station and illegal entry
into the United States. All of this was fuelled by drugs, by his
craving to score his next high, by his complete and all-consuming
devotion to his addiction.

Mr. Christie brought his message of drug dependence and recovery to
high school students at Anderson Collegiate in Whitby last week,
unvarnished, blunt and to the point, in much the same way he lived his
youth.

He began to turn his life around after committing to a rehabilitation
centre and program and has now been drug-free for nearly 13 years. He
is now making good on a vow he made back then to publicly discuss the
perils of drug abuse and addiction if he were to survive his
self-created ordeal. He has and he is.

Such a first-person narrative from a living and breathing example of
what drug addiction can do wasn't lost on the Anderson students who
sat in on his recent presentation. And the fact that Mr. Christie now
travels the province sharing his tale helps provide a glimpse of the
rewards of redemption, that even the darkest, deepest holes can be
escaped.

There were no graphs or diagrams or charts of the effects of drugs in
one's body. There were no admonitions about the moral failings of drug
use, no character judgments and no wagging fingers. It was one man,
sharing his experience, relating the effects and consequences, all of
which forced youth to consider the topic on a more personal level,
presented in a way to which they could relate.

Such was the strength of Mr. Christie's presentation, this sharing of
a dark tale in a simple setting, which so resonated with students.

Some youth will explore drug use, and some of those will confront
addiction. With luck, somewhere along the way for those young men and
women, Mr. Christie's presentation will provide a spark: of hope, of
redemption, of something better. 
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