Former drug addict brings message of hope to Sault students

A former drug addict in Sault Ste. Marie is telling her harrowing, personal story to high school kids.

20-year-old Shelby Speck started smoking marijuana in Grade 8, eventually moving on to ecstasy and cocaine in Grade 10. Eventually, Speck got hooked on the highly addictive crystal meth.

As she told CBC's Up North, it was her constant interactions with police that enabled her to turn her life around. Before that, she said, it was a life of despair.

"While I was using I had people who were best friends almost kill each other, literally kill each other in front of me," Speck said.

"I suffered a lot of different and all kinds of abuse and things like that. I did so much meth that I used to pick my back. I felt like there was bugs in it and I would pull shards of crystal meth out of my skin."

After five years of heavy drug use, Speck said one dedicated police officer, Emily Coccimiglio, offered help and changed her life.

"I was completely hooked on [meth] and I really lost myself doing it," she added. "I would steal and lie and it was one of the darkest times of my life. Emily Coccimiglio called me on the phone one night...when I was very deep I really had nothing left. And so we talked for about an hour."

"She convinced me to go to rehab...for three months, and really work on recovery."

Now clean, Speck said she looks forward to helping answer kids' questions. At a recent event, she said students asked candid questions about the effects drugs had on her life.

"They were asking a lot about my withdrawal effects," Speck said. "They asked a lot about the bad things I've seen and what really got me into drugs in the first place."

"And about if I thought that weed was like a gateway, and if I didn't start smoking weed would I have gotten as far as I did and things like that."

But she said one of the most surprising questions from a student made her reflect on the many what-ifs in her life.

"[One question was] if you didn't quit drugs, do you think you'd still be here today?"

"My answer was 'no,'" Speck said. "I probably would have died."