On a winning streak, until an injury sidelined him, Lukáš Bechyně was nearly defeated by drugs. Now he shares his passion for sports and the benefits of an active, healthy lifestyle with thousands of kids and speaks frankly about how drugs nearly ruined his life.

Lukáš Bechyně is no stranger to challenging situations. At 19, he qualified to compete as a pole vaulter in the International Amateur Athletic Federation World Championships. But after an injury sidelined him, he began to experiment with drugs, and that nearly defeated him. Now, as executive director of the Say No to Drug—Say Yes to Life Association of the Czech Republic, an affiliate of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, he is engaged in another kind of competition—reaching Czech youth with the truth about drugs before they begin to experiment with harmful substances.

He began with an occasional drink but soon segued into marijuana. By the time his injury healed, weekend partying had become the focus of his life. At his first techno party, a friend offered him ecstasy. Then another suggested he try crystal meth. 

“It was a trap,” he says.    

Drugs assumed greater and greater importance in his life. He didn’t like school, argued often with his parents and girlfriend, started experiencing mood swings, and developed health problems, including liver pain. 

“I decided to quit using drugs after a party where I combined several types of drugs,” he says. “I couldn’t control my body. I couldn’t see anything. I was feeling terribly sick and was literally dying. I felt like it was really over and I wanted to die.”

The next day, Bechyně stopped cold turkey. Thanks to his years in competitive sports, he was able to withdraw from the drugs by simply forcing himself to endure the physical discomfort, fatigue and pain to achieve the goal.

“My girlfriend and I both decided to stop using drugs and going to parties. It wasn’t easy,” he says. “Most of our friends were into parties and drugs at that time. I struggled for about a year. My friends would offer me drugs for free. But I’d made up my mind.” 

Some time later, he was introduced to the Say No to Drugs—Say Yes to Life Association of the Czech Republic by an athlete who was cycling and running through the country to reach kids with the truth about drugs. This sports initiative was called the Cyclo-Run for a Drug-Free Czech Republic. 

“I decided to support it,” he says. “I remember the first Truth About Drugs lecture I attended on the Cyclo-Run, watching the public service announcements through my own tears and learning many important things about drugs that I’d never known.”

At the lecture, Bechyně realized so much about himself: Why he took drugs, what they did to him, how drugs really work. 

“Many things in my past drug life suddenly made sense to me,” he says. “I decided to be a lecturer because I wanted to help children decide not to take drugs, and I could use my own bad experiences for something good.” 

He attended a Say No to Drugs training seminar for police, social workers, and lecturers and delivered his first anti-drug lecture at the elementary school in the town where he grew up.

 

“Since I started helping and delivering drug education, my life has turned 180 degrees in the right direction,” he says. “I have personally trained more than 25,000 children.”

In 2012 Bechyně agreed to be executive director of Say No to Drugs—Say Yes to Life Czech Republic. 

“I’ve done many TV and radio shows, I have the Drug-Free World logo on my athletic uniforms when I perform pole vault exhibitions in town squares. I deliver lectures, organize events, and I lead our Cyclo-Run team along with my colleague Vlastimil Špalek, my wife and other key players. My purpose is very simple: to help children with drug education to allow them to make the informed decision not to take drugs. My goal is to have drug-free kids in a drug-free society.”

Say No to Drugs Czech Republic is a chapter of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World and uses its Truth About Drug materials to help young people achieve their goals and their full potential by helping them make the firm decision to live drug-free.