Kay Woods
For the Kaimin

It's not enough to just say no to drugs; young people have to want to say no, ex-felon and former deep sea expedition leader Stephen Arrington told an audience of around 150 teachers this week.

"My job is to influence kids to make right choices," he said at a three-day Lifelong Learning Conference at the UC. "I believe what I have to share can help focus people to understand their childhood dreams. The needs of the real world can deprive us of (that)."

Arrington once swam circles around underwater volcanoes off the coast of Hawaii and poked at liquid rock cascading over waters beneath the south pacific surface. As one who once stared down the jaws of a great white shark, nothing bit him like his brush with drugs that led to his becoming a co-defendant in the John DeLorean drug trial of 1982 following one of the largest cocaine busts in the United States.

Being arrested in Los Angeles and sentenced to five years in prison put an end to the most shadowed time of his life, he said. It was at this time that he made a promise to himself that "no kid will come to a place like this" if he could help it.

In 1940, the top-seven problems in public schools were talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, cutting in line, dress code infractions and littering, Arrington said. In 1990 they were drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault he said, adding that in the late 90s it was mass murder and homemade explosives.

Arrington believes young people can escape the jaws of drugs that lead to violence and crime by going after their childhood dreams.

Arrington is helping others reach those dreams by giving up his dream job as chief diver for Jacques Cousteau to devote his life to speaking in public schools, colleges and youth groups nationwide about drugs, school violence and making positive choices in life.

"For the amount of money we're spending to lock up kids, we could be sending two (of them) to the most expensive colleges in the United States," he said, adding that of the over two million Americans in prison today, about 90 percent of them are there because of drug-related crimes.

Drug-related accidents are the number one killer of high school students, said Arrington, whose life with a drug mafia was turned into the double gold award-winning film, "Out of the Night."

"It's tough to be a kid and have all these drugs and negative choices being hurled at them," he said.

Arrington said the number one way drugs are introduced to kids are through their peers, but the second most common way is by their family.  Last year 20% of the youths doing drugs claimed they were introduced to them by their parents. "If you can find that spark (in children) for wanting to learn, you can save the life of that child," Arrington said, and that change can only be achieved by challenging youths to assume leadership roles.

According to U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, 88.9 percent of high school students in 1999 reported they could easily obtain marijuana, 58.1 percent could easily obtain amphetamines, and 47.6 percent said they could easily obtain cocaine. The numbers fall slightly for the ease of obtaining LSD, crack and barbiturates.

Arrington said he would like to see college students get involved in the crackdown on drugs in schools by becoming mentors for high school-age children, because often college students have had to overcome obstacles to chase their own dreams.

Peggy Mullin, a gifted kids program coordinator in the Stevensville High School has seen the positive effects of college student interaction with young people and agrees.

"College kids are insightful and have had similar struggles as high schoolers," she said.

Arrington, founder of the Dream Machine foundation and author of the "High on Adventure book series" has toured as a speaker in 48 states across America, England and Canada.

According to his Web site, Arrington has spoken to over 900 elementary, middle and high schools, has been sponsored by DARE in 19 states and has been featured on NBC and prime-time national television.