editorial comment So convincing......

Thirty-three-year-old Patrice Gearing and three others told a group of youngsters at the city's Boys and Girls Club yesterday about their lives and drugs.

"I can honestly tell you," said Boston resident Gearing, "that it's a miracle that I'm sitting here today - that we're all sitting here today."

The four were present at the club as part of the Brookline-based National Library of Addictions "Clean Summer Series," which started last week and involves the presentation of talks at Boys and Girls Clubs around the state about the dangers of drug use.

Dr. P.S. Kishore, founder of the organization, which literally features a library of 14,000 books about addictions, said that young people respond to stories. And that was what they got yesterday.

Gearing said she went from smoking cigarettes as a child to using marijuana and prescription drugs by the time she was 20.

"In the end, it wasn't so much fun," she said, recalling being robbed and spending time in jail. "You don't have to drink. You don't have to do drugs to be cool. You don't have to smoke cigarettes to be cool."

Twenty-one-year-old Paul Nicholas of Greater Boston said he had gone for almost three weeks without injecting heroin into his system.

"Don't ever look at that stuff, man," he advised. "It's wrong."

Nicholas said that the craving for the drug had put him in life-threatening situations, and that heroin literally changed how he looked.

"Every day, you get uglier and uglier and uglier," he said.

Ishmael A. Chisholm found the talk powerful.

"I wasn't expecting it, but ... I'm glad they did it," said the Springfield 12-year-old.

He said that when he enters middle school in the fall, he will not ignore it if he hears talk about drugs.

"I'm going to make sure if I hear anybody talking about drugs, I'm going to report it to the principal immediately," he said.

"I'm thinking that when I get older, I'm going to stay away from drugs," said 14-year-old Brittian J. Lea, who also lives in the city.

Lea, who will be entering high school in the fall, said it is important for youngsters to tell their parents if they hear talk about drugs. He also made it clear that there would be more than slight disapproval if he ever took drugs.

"Basically, my mom would kill me if I ever did that," he said.

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