ONE FAMILY'S STORY OF ADDICTION

Harold Johnston says when his son Tom started drinking at the age of 15 it
was to numb the pain of a dysfunctional home. Later he turned to pot,
ecstasy, cocaine and eventually crystal meth.

Drugs were ultimately to become his major crutch of choice and it became a
huge struggle to disengage himself from the vicious cycles of addiction.

"Tom came from a very good family. I'm a professional, not a user, or an
abuser. But drugs like methamphetamines hit across all classes, from West
Van to Chilliwack," says the Vancouver man who asked not to be identified.

Johnston (not his real name) agreed to tell his family's story in the hope
it could help others.

When Tom was 18 he moved to Chilliwack and for a few years he floated in
and out of the drug world until he couldn't take it anymore.

"The emotional impact has been devastating. To watch your child go through
it and be trapped in the drug world, it's terrible. Addiction is a big
problem everywhere," Johnston says.

He says Tom spent a two-year stint in Chilliwack, after starting to smoke
marijuana heavily at the age of 17. He graduated from high school, but only
by the skin of his teeth.

"One day he phoned me from Chilliwack around that time and said he felt
that his brain could not take anymore," Johnson remembers.

His young adult son had been living on his own, working part time and
smoking a lot of pot. He hung out with his buddies, who also used and
enabled him.

"There's lots of drugs in Chilliwack. Between Abbotsford and Chilliwack,
there's a lot going on," he says.

"From what I know, there's a fair bit of apathy among parents about meth
and drugs in general."

That's when he started looking for help.

"I started looking into treatment centres from Vancouver," he says. "Tom
wasn't quite 18, so as an adolescent it was almost impossible to get him in
anywhere. Then when he turned 18, I paid $10,000 to get him into
treatment." Tom went into recovery at the Edgewood Treatment Centre on
Vancouver Island and Harold thought that things would only improve
exponentially from there. But it wasn't over by a long-shot. "As a parent
the biggest reality check I got was that just because you put someone in
treatment, it doesn't mean they'll experience total recovery," he says. "I
discovered it's just the beginning of getting well."

Tom relapsed. He didn't follow the after-care treatment and relapsed within
a short time.

"Sometime they go bigger and deeper into it," Johnson recounts. "At that
point he was in Vancouver, but now he he'd been exposed to cocaine. He
didn't really like it and went back to pot."

Then one day when Tom was about 20, he tried crystal meth.

"That turned his world completely upside down."

It made him paranoid, he was picked up by police and even ended up locked
in the psyche ward. He started dealing to support his habit. His son smoked
meth, but he never did needles.

"I discovered one thing, he started smoking cigarettes at 16, then
marijuana, then crack cocaine, then meth. Smoking normalizes the whole
process. It's not a big leap and that's a big one for our society to
accept. They don't want to be meth-heads, it just grabs them and doesn't
let go."

He remembers how many times Tom told him he'd never do it again, even after
his father picked him up at the hospital.

"But he'd use a short time later," he says. "When you're on meth, you
cannot function in the real world."

Johnston sees how far his son has come and where he is today, clean, at the
age of 24. He's in treatment again in another community.

"I'm relieved he's out of the really deep pockets of addiction," he says.
"I think family support was a big factor and of course, his own will power."

Tom always wanted to do other things. He loved animation and computer work.

"He still has ambitions and dreams," says his dad.

He applauds anti-drug programs for youth such as DARE, but warns that any
program in isolation isn't likely to work.

"We live in a culture where we need more than a one-pillar approach," he
says. "We need a multi-faceted approach. These kids are a product of our
society and culture. We have to step up and get parents and businesses
involved.

"It doesn't excuse the responsibility of the addict, but we all have to
take a little responsibility in some form or another."