A FAMILY TORN APART BY ADDICTION

"I find my daughter with her (sister's) picture in bed sometimes at night
asking where she is and when she's coming home."

Tears fall, one by one, down Mary's face as she begins to speak about her
daughter.

"She had an over-80 average, she played soccer," said Mary, of her now
17-year-old daughter, Leigh (not their real names). "She went to youth camp
and to church. She was involved in all those things."

But a downward spiral began in 2003, just before Leigh turned 16.

"She started smoking marijuana, from what I know, when she was 15. I caught
her and she had attitude. Her grades were dropping. I missed it and I felt
really stupid for missing it," said Mary.

Then, a few months prior to Leigh's 16th birthday, mother and daughter got
into an argument and Leigh packed her bags and moved out. "She left and it
was over the drugs," said Mary.

Although at that point Mary believed Leigh was only smoking pot, she would
later delve into harder drugs, which the family believes is crystal meth.
"I phoned social services and I was told unless she was in danger in her
own home there was nothing they could do. They said 'oh yes, you can phone
the police and have her dragged home.' That's not going to bridge a
relationship if you have the police dragging her.'"

But Leigh soon turned 16, and no longer legally had to live at home.

Although Leigh moved out, Mary says she maintained a relationship with her
daughter who managed to find a place to stay and was both going to school
and working. She would come often to visit her half-brother and half-sister.

She moved to a different house prior to the 2004 school year, but was still
visiting home and working.

In Feb. 2004 things turned upside down as Leigh had an incident at school
and was kicked out for the year.

"Now she has nothing but time on her hands," said Mary.

Leigh managed to maintain a full time job, but things turned topsy turvey
during the summer months.

"She's at my house June 25. Happy. Doing her thing. We go to a family
reunion, we get back and we phone the house she's at."

Mary suspects it was around that time Leigh had started smoking crystal meth.

Finally Leigh's grandfather was told she has been missing for three days.

The family filed a missing persons report and Mary and Leigh's grandmother
began a frantic search.

They knew she'd been fired from her job and has no money for food.

"All we kept hearing is one particular name," said Mary. She and her mother
drove to a known crack house in Lloydminster and saw Leigh standing in the
yard.

They didn't see her again until August. That's when they tried to kidnap her.

Mary said her daughter had lost a lot of weight and was extremely agitated.

"We grabbed her; put her in the vehicle. She kicked and screamed. She bit
me. She acted like a wild animal," said Mary. Leigh's grandfather was there
as well.

"I had her in the car. I had her in my arms. I kick my butt that I let her
go," he said, his voice edged with anger.

She was arrested in September, and although Mary had to sign her release
papers because she is still under 18, Leigh chose not to go with her mother.

That would be the last time Mary saw her daughter, except for a brief
moment as she drove past the yard of the house she knew her daughter was
staying at.

Cpl. Keith Bott of the Lloydminster RCMP said Leigh isn't the only youth
struggling with a drug problem in Lloydminster.

And youth Leigh's age -- between 16 and 18 -- are often difficult to deal
with as programs to help them are limited. They are often still too young
for adult programs and too old for social services to step in.

"The toughest one is the parents wanted nothing to do with her because she
was out of control," said Bott.

"It was frustrating. We couldn't release her because if we did she would
just get back to (the drugs)."

Craig Featherstone, executive director of the Walter A. Slim Thorpe
Recovery centre says rehab won't work unless the person in rehab wants to
be there.

"If they don't want to admit they have a problem, it's not going to work,"
he said. "Normally they don't even stay. They do something to sabotage
their stay."

While not much is available for youth in Lloydminster, Slim Thorpe's adult
program will take two adolescents.

Daryl Arneson, youth counsellor at the Slim Thorpe Outpatient Centre, said
sometimes it's better if youth are taken out of Lloydminster. "It gets them
away from their contacts," he said.

Arneson said the youth coming through his program are between the ages of
14 and 18 and meth use doesn't seem to be an issue. "That's not to say it's
not out there."

Bott said the city as a whole needs to do more in recognizing the problem.

"People don't really want to get involved until their car gets broken into
and their stereo equipment gets stolen," he said.

Leigh's younger siblings no longer ask where she is.

"They don't ask anymore. I think they don't ask because it hurts me and I cry."

"I find my daughter with her (sisters) picture in bed sometimes at night
asking where she is and when she's coming home."