YOUNG ADDICTS GO TO ALBERTA TO GET HELP THEY CAN'T GET HERE

Conrad Ahrens was into drugs, crime and high-speed chases when his
desperate parents brought him to Calgary for treatment. This weekend,
he celebrated his sobriety

CALGARY -- Surrey teenager Conrad Ahrens was the first to mysteriously
disappear.

He was followed a week later by his comrade-in-drugs-and-crime, Ryan
Keller.

Fueled by drugs -- with a penchant for stealing Hondas and Mustangs --
they were part of a gang of joyriders engaging police in high-speed
chases throughout the Lower Mainland.

Eventually their exploits were aired on television by CrimeStoppers
and a reward was offered for their capture.

Then in March 2000, they vanished.

"It likely caused the crime rate in Surrey to drop 30 per cent," said
Ryan's mother, Cathy.

This weekend they surfaced at Calgary's Alberta Adolescent Recovery
Centre (AARC), where they and their families have been for the past 10
months, receiving treatment they could not get in B.C.

Conrad, 17, graduated from the addiction treatment program Friday at a
ceremony attended by more than 100 family members and friends from the
AARC program.

His pal Ryan's turn will come next month.

Their parents used words such as "miraculous" and "unbelievable" to
describe their sons' transformation and said the AARC program likely
saved their lives.

Without treatment they would have died behind the wheel of a stolen
car or from an overdose, said Cathy.

"Our life had been such hell that [Ryan's father] Doug and I were just
waiting for the phone call telling us he was dead. In actual fact I
was looking forward to it," she said.

There was no attempt at shock in that remark. It was a simple
statement of fact.

Conrad's father, Hugo, admitted that at the time the Kellers were
waiting for their phone call he had rage and murder in his heart for
an addict son who had once been "his hero."

Unable to find any treatment for their sons in B.C. and desperate for
help, the parents virtually kidnapped the teenagers and brought them
to AARC after reading about the centre in The Vancouver Sun.

"In B.C. they kept telling me they wouldn't take Ryan into treatment
unless he agreed to be there, which he never would. They said he had
to hit bottom before he could be treated. Bottom for him would have
been six feet under," said his mother

"I saw the Sun article about AARC and for some reason I kept it --
this was before we realized what Ryan was doing -- and then when all
this happened I showed it to Mrs. Ahrens," said Cathy. "My biggest
fear when we got him to AARC was they'd say the same thing as B.C. and
refuse to take him in. But they took him even though he didn't want to
be there," he said.

For the Kellers and Ahrens this decision meant sacrificing their homes
and way of life in B.C. for an uncertain future in Calgary.

The AARC program only accepts youth in the final stages of addiction,
when their behaviour is taking them towards insanity or death. It
treats the whole family and demands rigorous attendance from parents
and other siblings for night and weekend meetings. Anyone unwilling to
fulfill these commitments is terminated.

In some cases this has led to the separation of spouses and the
splitting of families during treatment.

The centre doesn't house its 36 youthful clients. Nor will it permit
them to stay with their families until they are well advanced in
treatment. Newcomers to the program are billetted with clients who
more advanced in their treatment.

The program -- based on the 12-step Alcoholic Anonymous model -- was
designed by Calgary psychologist Dr. Dean Vause. It is
uncompromising.

"I know other professionals in the field say you can't treat these
kids, that treatment is successful if you reduce their drug or alcohol
use by a third.

"But not round here. Good is the enemy of the best. Close enough
doesn't count for us," said Vause.

"Harm reduction for this type of client with their level of addiction
is a death sentence. This is a disease you can't play with. We tell
these guys that while they're in here getting treatment their
addiction is outside doing pushups," he said.

The program's success rate has drawn the attention of the B.C.
government and social service agencies in Toronto.

Vause estimates that about 60 per cent of the adolescents who finish
treatment stay sober without relapsing. Forty per cent will relapse
but most come back for further treatment and then stay sober. Some 10
to 15 per cent go back to drugs or alcohol.

When Cathy Keller inquired about treatment programs in B.C. she was
told the success rate was about seven per cent.

Earlier this month Provincial Court Judge Thomas Gove visited the
centre. It was Gove's inquiry into the state of social services that
led to one of the largest shakeups in government and formation of the
ministry for children and families.

Gove said he left AARC greatly impressed.

"It's a unique program and quite different from the one's I've seen in
B.C. It's premises are spotlessly clean, it has a large fully
equipped gym, an outdoor skating rink, its own kitchen, well-appointed
meeting rooms and assembly areas. "And its attitude that nothing less
than excellence is acceptable was quite a surprise," said Gove.

A non-profit group has formed in Vancouver to bring the AARC program
here.

It will take an estimated $1 million to open and staff a centre, said
Diane Sowden of Coquitlam's Children of the Street Society. It will
also need the support of corporations whose donations help keep the
doors open in Calgary, she said.

She has been attempting to convince the provincial government for two
years to bring in AARC. So far, the government has put $50,000 towards
a study to see if AARC could succeed in B.C.

Sowden said the report showed that an AARC program was not only needed
but would attract corporate donations. But despite the report the
government has yet to follow the example of the Alberta government and
provide start up funds.

"That's why these parents have to go to all the trouble of moving to
Calgary for help. We have all kinds of families here who are desperate
for this program and they shouldn't have to give up their homes and
jobs to get in," Sowden said.

An official with the ministry for children and families said the
ministry won't comment on the issue ahead of a report from the Task
Force on Addiction Services that has the job of recommending treatment
programs. The report is expected March 1.

B.C. families have been trooping off to Calgary almost since AARC
began about 10 years ago. At least one family went bankrupt, others
have struggled financially.

AARC's fees are $115 a day and Doug Keller, a mechanical designer at
Ballard Generations Systems in Burnaby, said the decision to place
Ryan in treatment has cost them $100,000 in fees, lost wages and expenses.

"But there are families in AARC who pay nothing. No one gets turned
away because they can't afford it," he said.

They sold their home and his wife took leave from her job with
Canadian Airlines and moved with the couple's three other sons to
Calgary in July. Doug commutes between Vancouver and Calgary every
weekend so he can attend meetings.

The Ahrens estimate it has cost them almost $200,000 as they stand to
lose $100,000 on the price of their Surrey home, which has been on the
market for a year and hasn't sold.

Hugo runs his own industrial automation designing company and he has
moved shop to Calgary.

Was it money well spent?

"Every penny," said Hugo.

Glimpses of what happened to his son and his friend Ryan could be
found in their addresses to the hundred or so people who attended
Conrad's graduation.

But the graduation also provided a glimpse at what happens to the
families who choose the AARC route, as Hugo's remarkable testament
clearly showed.

He said he hated his son when he first admitted him to
AARC.

A large, robust man, he caused the audience almost to stop breathing
when he announced that his father had been an officer in Adolph
Hitler's SA -- the dread paramilitary organization created by the Nazi
party.

"On Nov. 8, 1938 my dad did a most courageous and honourable deed. He
was the group leader of an SA unit when he received orders to go out
and smash Jewish windows to force them to flee.

"It was the first public act of the Nazi party against Jews and has
become known as the night of the broken crystal. But he wouldn't issue
the order and he took off his uniform with disastrous personal
consequences.

"Tonight I stand here as my father's equal. I've encountered the
enemy, taken action and my conscience is clear," he said.

He spoke of the bewilderment and disgust he felt at his son's
behaviour and how last February he installed a wire tap on his home
phone so he could discover the truth. "I can't tell you how awful I
felt sitting in that dark storeroom listening to the day's
conversations."

Through it he discovered his son's involvement in drugs and car thefts
and joy-riding escapades. He said this enabled him to manipulate
events to keep Conrad away from some dangerous situations.

In early March he had laid his plans and asked Conrad to come with him
to Port Kells to move some boxes. Instead, he put him in the car and
drove to Calgary. As an indication of Conrad's state of awareness, it
wasn't until the pair were past Golden that he realized they weren't
just going around the block.

When they arrived at AARC Conrad bitterly abused and swore at his
father and went off to an assessment, where he tried to say he'd only
smoked crack cocaine once. When told his father had tapped his phone
he readily confessed to a drug habit that appears to have started at
the age of 10 and included all illegal drugs known in North America.

A week later when Ryan came in, two counsellors had to restrain him
from attacking his father when he realized he wasn't going home.

Yet a few days afterwards his son wept on his shoulder and thanked him
for bringing him in.

"He was just conning you," said his wife mischievously.

But on Friday night Conrad couldn't restrain the tears when he spoke
of what his family had sacrificed for him.

"Dad, I remember the day you brought me in here. I couldn't stop
swearing at you for five minutes. That relationship was toast. But you
are a good man, Dad, and I love you."