PARENTS LEFT POWERLESS TO HELP

If a loved one is seriously mentally ill and about to jump off a
bridge, you can have him committed. But if that same person is
drug-addicted and needs to be forced into treatment, good luck.

Mental health acts across the country permit the compulsory care of
mentally ill people who are believed to be a danger to themselves or
others. But drug addicts who are slowly killing themselves are a
different matter.

Bob has tried for more than a decade to help his 25-year-old, crack
cocaine addict son, Terry (not their real names). Terry has been in
and out of jail since he was a young teen for a string of
property-related offences related to his addiction. By the time he
was 20, he was already in a federal penitentiary. He got out, stayed
out of trouble for a brief period, but then migrated back to the drug scene.

Bob eventually booted him out of the house a couple of months ago
because he found drug paraphernalia in Terry's bedroom. "The last
time I kicked him out, he was sleeping on the streets in cars he was
stealing," says the Calgary resident.

Earlier this year, Terry ended up in hospital because of drug-induced
hallucinations. The doctor who sedated Terry warned: "His young heart
is turning into a very old heart and he could die from this."

In a last-ditch attempt to get his son help, Bob got a judge to sign
a mental health warrant and the police picked his son up and took him
to a psych ward. Less than three hours later, the doctor released
Terry, saying he was abusive but not a danger.

FILLING OUT FORMS

"I spent longer filling out the forms ... than (Terry) spent in that
institution," says a devastated Bob.

His son is now in custody awaiting trial on a slew of new charges.

Terry should be forced into secure treatment before he kills himself,
says Bob. Legally, however, that's impossible because his son's an adult.

"It's horrible to feel like there's nothing you can do," laments Bob.
"I feel very let down."

Across the country, in a tiny community on Georgian Bay, another
parent is struggling to help her daughter, a 25-year-old cocaine
addict. Her daughter has been in and out of psych wards. The doctors
always released her because she wasn't considered a danger to herself.

This parent, too, wants her child forcibly placed in secure drug
treatment. "These people aren't capable of making that decision for
themselves," she says.

"If she relapses again, she's going to end up ... half-baked out of
her mind on the streets of Toronto," she adds. "I'm just one person
but I'm sure there are thousands of people ... that have been through
this same crap."

Indeed, there are, but there is no legislative mechanism allowing
parents to compel adult children to take drug treatment, notes
University of Calgary law professor Pat Knoll.

Kidnapping your grown children and placing them in a treatment
facility is an invitation to a lawsuit for unlawful confinement, he says.

TAKE THE RISK

Nevertheless, Knoll suggests parents do exactly that if necessary.
"Sometimes, it might be considered the very last chance you have to
save that child," he explains. "I would risk any kind of litigation."

He ought to know. Several years ago, an underage relative of his
who'd become drug-addicted was taken against his will to a Calgary
treatment centre for 10 months. He's now clean.

"Even if this member of my extended family had been over 18, were
there a facility to take him, I would have taken all measures ... to
see him in that facility regardless of any potential litigation," says Knoll.

"Unless you've walked this path with a loved one, it's pretty hard to
understand the horror of it."