PARENTS USE LAW TO COMPEL DRUG REHAB

CALGARY -- Finding drug paraphernalia in her son's room; installing
spyware on the family computer to root out dealer contacts; watching
her 16-year-old turn into a total stranger -- it was a piling up of
events that led to rock bottom, says a Calgary mom.

"He wasn't our son anymore, he was somebody we didn't even
recognize," said Anne, whose last name has been withheld to protect
her son's identity.

"We were absolutely desperate. Our son was spiralling downhill."

That led her to take advantage of a new Alberta law and send her
drug-addicted child to a detoxification facility for five days.

Since it became law on July 1, 2006, the Protection of Children
Abusing Drugs Act has connected nearly 400 families to drug treatment
services. Only Alberta and Saskatchewan have legislation allowing
parents to seek court-ordered confinement.

The past year has seen a number of successes, said Silvia Vajushi,
Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission executive director of youth services.

"The numbers themselves are surprising," Vajushi said. "There were
certainly more referrals than we expected."

One of the biggest benefits is creating awareness for parents not to
wait too late to intervene when they see their children set out on
the path of drug addiction.

"Even though there's lots of information out there, unfortunately
people don't tend to (seek) that information until they really need
it. At that point, parents were finding it was a little too late and
they felt stuck."

This law, she said, helps them get "unstuck."

When Anne's son started attending a new high school in his Grade 10
year, he hooked up with the wrong crowd.

While his parents were suspicious -- his grades started tanking and
he began having violent mood swings -- it wasn't until they installed
spyware on their computer that they learned the extent of their son's
drug involvement.

"This was devastating to us. We just thought everything was going
along perfectly," Anne said.

Eventually her son was arrested for smoking a joint in front of a
movie theatre.

Soon after, Anne learned her son was taking ecstasy, that his drug
use had spiralled from marijuana to cocaine.

Faced with the choice of living with his problem, or kicking her son
out of the house, Anne spent many hours on the phone, trying to track
down a program that could help her troubled son.

But he refused treatment and she felt helpless.

At their wits end, they turned to the new law to get a court-ordered
confinement, sending their son to a detoxification facility last week.

It wasn't easy -- the teenager was furious and refused to talk to his
parents for several days. But on Thursday, at the end of the five
days, when he returned home, he did something unusual, Anne said. He
approached his mother, gave her a hug and kiss, and thanked her.

"I've seen a real difference in him," said Anne, noting her son has
voluntarily agreed to go to counselling.

"This allowed us to keep our child in our home, keep him safe. So far
it's been a very happy ending for us. Now that we've been through it,
we know in our hearts it was the best."