Here, this will make you barf with your morning coffee, The child abusers at PFC have managed to slime their way into the Detroit area community once again:
http://www.freep.com/features/living/ri ... 040912.htm ROCHELLE RILEY: Tell kids over and over: Say no to drugs
September 12, 2004
BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
If you think your children would never do drugs, know that parents can be fooled. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of an expert:
Ian Reynolds got hooked on marijuana at 12. He was dealing before he was 13.
"When I sold, it was for the money. I didn't care," he said. "I would have sold to 7-year-olds and 8-year-olds."
By 14, Ian experimented with alcohol, LSD, prescription pills, inhalants, opium, barbiturates.
"I would try anything to get high -- Ajax, chemicals, poisons. I was poisoning myself to get high. It came to the point where I didn't care how hard it was, I was going to get high."
Eventually, Ian hit rock bottom. No school would accept him. He lost his girlfriend. And his younger brother was following his path. His mother, who had tried everything from military school to the courts, persuaded him to enter rehab last August for 48 days. Because of his previous arrests, Ian was ordered by the court to stay longer. He is there now, at Pathway Family Center in Southfield. He has been clean for a year.
A parent assumes
Ian talks about his experiences to help others. Michigan parents can hear him during a town hall meeting Wednesday sponsored by Comcast Cable and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Other partners include WJBK-TV (Channel 2), WTVS-TV (Channel 56), the Detroit Free Press, WJR-AM (760) and the Prevention Coalition of Michigan.
If parents take anything from the forum -- and it would be a shame for any parent to miss it -- it is this: You cannot tell your child enough not to do drugs.
Michelle Reynolds, 43, was a single mother of four when Ian went astray. They lived in Fenton, then HighlandTownship. She now lives in White LakeTownship. She said she can't remember telling her kids to just say no.
"I was adamantly against drugs the whole time they were growing up. . . . I made sure I knew where they were going, when they were going to be home, who the parents were. But do I remember sitting down and having a family discussion? No. I guess I thought that because they had the DARE program, and they knew I was against drugs. . . ."
A lifelong battle
It can happen so quickly, so unexpectedly, that first time. For Ian, it happened when he spent the night at a friend's. About midnight, his friend's sisters and others asked the boys to go for a walk.
"We ended up sitting in a park at this picnic table, and they started passing around a joint," Ian said. "My first reaction was to take a hit. . . . After that, from what I remember, within a few months, it was an everyday thing."
Ian eventually wound up in juvenile detention, and later at Pathway. There, he has graduated high school and attends Oakland Community College. He wants to become a criminal prosecutor. On Sept. 3, he celebrated one year clean. But he knows his fight is permanent.
"I'm one step away. That's one thing I've learned in addiction. Sometimes this disease doesn't really care what I want. I'm done with drugs today. I don't see myself getting high. I treat it very seriously. That's my life."
The Comcast Town Hall Meeting will air at 8 p.m. Wednesday on WTVS-TV (Channel 56) and on WJR-AM (760). Check local listings for cable airings.
If you need help, contact Pathway at 800-261-4605 or
http://www.pathwayfamilycenter.org.
Catch Rochelle on "Am I Right?" on WTVS-TV (Channel 56) at 5:30 p.m. Fridays and 2 p.m. Sundays. You can order her book 'Life Lessons' (Detroit Free Press, $14.95) at 800-245-5082 or
http://www.freep.com/bookstore. Contact ROCHELLE RILEY at 313-223-4473 or
riley@freepress.com.
