ESCAPE FROM ADDICTION -- A TEENAGER TELLS HER STORY

Back at home with her mother and working at two jobs, she warns
parents not to give money to their children

Shawna was sound asleep when three RCMP officers arrived at the
suburban house late one winter afternoon. Her mother let the officers
in and then, as planned, she stepped outside while they made for the
bedroom.

The officers woke up the unsuspecting 17-year-old, showed her a
document signed by a judge and escorted her out of the house into the
waiting cruiser.

For the next five days, Shawna was confined to a detox safe house in
Edmonton in an attempt to get the crack cocaine out of her system.

Like many teenagers, she arrived angry, shocked and resentful -- her
privacy invaded, her personal freedom abruptly curtailed by the courts
- -- and she was almost 18, almost an adult.

Like many addicted teens, Shawna was unaware her mother had gone to
court just days earlier under the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs
Act. She thought immediately of exercising her right to appeal. But
those thoughts quickly died as she collapsed behind the warm, safe
walls.

"Basically, I just slept for five days. I'd been up all week"(on crack
cocaine).

In a gesture of defiance on her release, she refused consent to let
her mother read the counsellor's assessment of her addiction and
proposed treatment.

(That will change under proposed amendments to PChAD currently before
the legislature. Parents will be allowed to see their teen's treatment
recommendations, though parts of the report will remain
confidential.)

Shawna says she managed to hide her drug habits from her mother for
years. At 14, she started smoking marijuana, and then moved on to
mushrooms, crystal meth and Ketamine, an anesthetic used by
veterinarians.

"At 16, I tried crack cocaine and soon it turned into an everyday
thing," she said.

"In the beginning, I thought I could control the drug," says Shawna,
though that soon proved false.

"I didn't want help. The only thing I'd ever think about was getting
my next fix."

In hindsight, Shawna says she's supportive of the PChAD court program,
though she firmly resented it at the time. It was one step on a long
walk out of the grip of drugs, she says.

Like her mom, Shawna agrees with a proposal now before the legislature
to extend the compulsory stay from five to up to 15 days.

Five days is not long enough to get over the initial anger and get
your head clear enough to make a rational decision about what to do
next, she says.

"After a certain amount of 'clean' time, your brain can think about
what you want to do," she said in a recent interview.

Some parents go back to court five and six times (there's no limit) to
get their kids into detox. Many teens are resistant to the suggestion
of going on for rehabilitation after their detox time.

That, in fact, was Shawna. After her first stint in a safe house,
Shawna fell even further into the dangerous drug world. She dropped
out of school, left home, went right back to using drugs and ended up
living on the streets one cold winter month, sleeping in a car, moving
in with friends.

"I never really wanted to go into rehab. I don't think any addict
does," says the young woman.

After her Mom got a second court order, Shawna was "willing to talk to
the staff at the safe house, " she said. But not yet ready to give up
drugs.

Her decision to go clean was a more gradual process, she
says.

After some months, her mother convinced AADAC to take Shawna into a
three-month residential treatment program. But even there, for the
first month, she took drugs when she went home on weekends.

"Then one day I just realized it's not worth it," she says. "The more
addicted I got, the more paranoid I got. I was always angry, I'd fly
into rages and I'd be violent."

Of the teens she met on the street drug scene, she's the only one who
got out, she says. Some have been arrested and the dealers will get
caught eventually, she adds.

"I don't like to see them again."

The problem isn't the lack of activities for kids, she says. The
problem is teenagers often don't like themselves and drugs help ease
that pain, she says.

Also, teenagers think "things are more fun to do under the influence,"
she says.

The craving for crack cocaine still haunts her occasionally, but it's
controllable as long as she keeps busy, she says.

She's living at home, working two jobs and things are better with her
Mom, "though we still have our arguments," she says.

What can parents do when they see their kids in this kind of
trouble?

"Tough love works. Don't give kids money when they ask for it," she
says.

Shawna has a second chance at life and she's determined to make it
good.

"I've never really thought about what I want to do. Now I actually
have to grow up."