DETOX FOR KIDS WINS RESULTS

So forcing drug-addicted kids into lock-up for five days so they can sober
up and see the error of their ways works.

Who knew? Who could have guessed that making a teenager do Anything they
didn't want to do could turn out the way their parents hoped?

I have to admit that when the province enacted the Protection of
Children Abusing Drugs Act last year, I was right there on the
sidelines waiting for the program to fall flat on its face.

I dismissed it as another cynical attempt by the government to appear
concerned about addiction, all the while reaping billions of dollars
in tax revenue from gambling, booze and tobacco.

You can't force anyone to sober up, I argued. It's a decision they
have to make on their own. Addicts are masters of manipulation.
They'll say and do just about anything to get their next fix. They
will trample, steal from and betray even their closest loved ones to
feed their all-consuming habits.

As Johnny Cash put it in his hauntingly straightforward song about his
own addiction, Hurt,

"And you could have it all/

My empire of dirt/

I will let you down/

I will make you hurt."

But as it turns out, commanding some teens to go to their rooms and
not come out until they're ready to behave more civilized actually
works.

Here's how the law, or PChAD as it's known among social workers and
addictions councillors, works:

Parents of kids with out-of-control drug or alcohol habits can go to
court and have a judge order the kids into special, locked-up detox
centres for up to five days.

Any addictions councillor will tell you that five days is not nearly
enough time for people to rehabilitate themselves from drug addiction.

But that isn't exactly the goal anyway, AADAC's then-CEO Murray
Finnerty told me last year.

In essence, he explained, it's a court-ordered "intervention," where
loved ones deliver a metaphorical slap in the face to addicts to make
them see sense.

The hope is that by cutting teens off from their drug of choice and
giving their bodies five days to flush out some of the poison, they'll
realize that they need help and voluntarily check into a longer rehab
program.

And according to the statistics compiled by AADAC, it actually
works.

In the first 13 months of the program from July 2006 to August 2007,
618 Albertan teenagers were ordered into detox. Of those, 49% admitted
themselves into a rehab program after their incarceration.

That's more than 300 drug-addicted kids who realized their lives were
out of control and sought help.

How well they managed to stay off drugs is an unanswered question, but
there's no doubt that PChAD was a very good first step.

Some other stats that came out of AADAC's evaluation of the
program:

- - Of those teenagers who were ordered into detox, 55% were
girls.

- - More than half, 56%, were aged 12 to 15.

- - And if you're deluded enough to think that only homeless street kids
end up with out-of-control drug habits, 58% of those ordered into
detox were still in school.

- - Nearly all of the kids abused more than one substance. While alcohol
(98%) and marijuana (96%) were the drugs of choice, 73% used
psychedelics like LSD and ecstasy and more than half (57%) used cocaine.

Something else you might want to know if you're ready to give up on
your kid: The survey shows that the more actively involved and
supportive parents are of their kids' rehab, the greater that kids'
chances are that they'll be able to wrestle their lives away from addiction.