Pubdate: Tue, 24 Oct 2000
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2000 The Register-Guard
Contact:  PO Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Author: Bill Bishop, The Register-Guard

ADDICT BARES SOUL FOR STUDENTS

The allure of hard drugs boils down to this: a lifetime wasted - only 
dreaming about the fun other people have. Living penniless and alone. 
Wearing handcuffs and leg irons. Spending years locked in a small, smelly 
prison cell with someone you hate.

William "Bud" Dickerson painted the picture for a courtroom full of Cottage 
Grove High School students Monday.

Dickerson, 53, has been in state prison cells and county jail cells for 
drugs - and he's now headed for a federal lockup for four years and nine 
months as a felon and a drug user who illegally possessed a gun.

He was sentenced minutes after addressing students.

He had asked to meet with the students and received no benefit for his 
talk, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Lininger said.

Most of the students, members of teacher Mike Wolfe's introduction to law 
class, were shocked when the addict admitted he'd probably go back to drugs 
if he were released.

"A lot of people felt sorry for him," sophomore James Raade said. 
"Everybody makes mistakes, but you've got to pay the consequences."

Dickerson, himself a Cottage Grove graduate, pulled no punches in 
describing how inmates are strip-searched, how prison cells stink and how 
drugs take over a life. He recalled losing his teeth, his money and his 
self-respect.

"What I am is a junkie, a drug user, a drug pusher and a dope cook. I am a 
man who has ruined his life and who has ruined the lives of others," 
Dickerson said. "I did approximately $100 worth of drugs a day. It ain't 
fun having nothing to show for your life but bad memories and a prison 
record, with more to come."

As bad as it is, Dickerson said prison isn't the worst part of drug addiction.

"There were over 30 deaths last year in Eugene from heroin overdoses. I 
personally knew over 10 of them," he told the students. "I can tell you 
none of them wanted to die, they just wanted to get high. One girl left 
four kids under the age of 10."

In spite of Dickerson's numerous arrests and long history of drug crimes, 
he never received drug treatment, according to court records.

Drug treatment is provided for only 4,000 federal prison inmates, U.S. 
District Judge Ann Aiken said.

Currently, more than 30 new federal prisons are under construction at a 
cost of $2.2 billion, with a projected annual operating cost of $35 million 
each to hold 60,000 new inmates, she said.

"This is not a dramatic presentation," she told the students. "This is what 
we're doing each and every day." Turning to Dickerson, the judge said, "I 
thank you for reaching out to people who still have decisions to make in 
their lives."

She called his statement "thoughtful, frightening, horrifying, sad, yet 
hopeful and full of wisdom if people truly listen."

Brian Leavitt, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal and a veteran on the job, 
said Dickerson's presentation was the first he's seen in 21 years that a 
defendant voluntarily spoke candidly to students about his life and crimes.

As students gathered to catch their bus, sophomore Raade reflected on 
Dickerson's request that they not take the path he chose.

"I think he was a good guy, but made the wrong decision as a youth," Raade 
said. "I guess when you're facing addiction you can't really help but do 
it. It's scary."
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