DRUG USERS LOOK FOR NEW LIFE.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Garrett Stairs looks like the typical college student, the ink barely dry on his Saugus High School diploma -- except that he's 6-foot-10, very soft-spoken and self- possessed.

On Saturday, Stairs talked to a lively group of junior high and high schoolers so they could learn to be like his ``after'' -- because now they are more like his ``before.''

``For two years I was spun pretty much. We were slinging, started our own crew,'' he told them. ``There's probably people looking for us.''

Spun means high on methamphetamine. Slinging means dealing drugs.

Stairs, 18, grew up in the upscale Circle J neighborhood, his dad a sheriff, his mom an escrow officer.

But by age 10, Stairs aid he was getting drunk almost every other day. By ninth grade, was smoking pot with friends. After a breakup with his then-girlfriend, he said he took up meth to dull the heartbreak.

From age 13 to 16, he said he dealt drugs but was never busted -- playing high school basketball and maintaining average grades -- and managed to keep up a pretty good front so it took his parents a while to catch on.

Now, he said he has been clean for 16 months.

On Saturday, his audience were young men and women participating in an intervention program run by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies for at-risk teens between the ages of 13 and 17.

Classes for VIDA -- Vital Intervention Directional Alternatives -- are held three times a week for 12 weeks. Saturday sessions include community service projects, guest speakers like Stairs and physical training administered by military drill instructors.

Stairs was helped by the ACTION Parent and Teen Support Program, and while sharing his gritty story is meant to toss others a life raft, it also sustains his belief in himself.

Stairs' parents worked when he was a baby so his grandparents cared for him. Their barn-like home on 3 acres in Agua Dulce would have been picturesque were it not for grandma's meth habit and the living she made dealing cocaine and crystal meth, he said.

Divorced and remarried, her first husband was often up at the house working on his bike: He was a Hell's Angels leader and meth user, and something of a role model, Stairs said.

After stealing his mom's car a second time to make a drug buy, she threatened to ship Stairs to Utah for rehab. He ran away from home -- taking $1.25 and his backpack with only school supplies.

``I was going by a shop window, I looked in and saw my reflection but I didn't recognize myself. I was all sucked up, no meat, just skin and bone. I didn't recognize who I was. I was scared of who I was seeing in the window,'' he said.

Stairs eventually got straight -- with help -- and says now he deals with life as it comes.

Many in Stairs' audience Saturday could identify with his experiences. Many are in gangs, unruly at home or in school, or using drugs.

A 16-year-old with tousled blond hair and soft blue eyes said he was trying to bounce back.

``It's hard because when you're getting high you don't realize you are as bad as `them,''' he said. ``I was 6 foot and 130 pounds.''

He began using speed at 12, surrounded by family members who were multiple substance abusers. He went on to use crystal meth and crack cocaine.

``I used heroin once,'' he said. ``I didn't like the high. I like to be up.'' Speed and crack wooed him, and speed won.

``I was married to that pipe,'' he said. I would care more about that piece of glass than my own life.''

He said he broke into homes nightly and stole about four cars to get the money to support his high. But he bungled his last theft attempt.

``I was so high I couldn't remember how to get into (the car),'' he said. ``I was stomping on the sun roof. A guy came out with a gun.''

Police arrested him and charged him with felony vandalism and felony drug possession.

Now, the VIDA program is part of his lifeline. His mom had used crack cocaine, crystal meth and abused alcohol for 20 years and has been in and out of jail, but has been clean for six years and he has moved in with her.

He will be entering an intense outpatient program with ACTION. Stairs' message got through to him, he said.

``It goes to show me I'm not alone, other people are in my shoes,'' he said. ``You can get better.''

With determination he says he wants to attend culinary arts school and become a chef.

Stairs now is majoring in business law at Los Angeles Valley College and plans to pursue a business degree.

For information on the VIDA program, contact Deputy Tim Ferrone at [phone].

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A message plays describing a teen found brain-dead after using drugs.

(2 -- color) Steven Andrews of Frazier Park talks about his past drug problem.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News