EARLY INTERVENTION HALTED TEEN'S DOWNWARD SPIRAL INTO CRIME, DRUGS

Mary must have had someone looking out for her.

The Maple Ridge 17-year-old flirted with the law and drugs and somehow
survived both, but not without a lot of help from people along the
way.

A drug counsellor, a tireless volunteer, an aunt and uncle, a friend
and an angry but worried mom all helped saved her from a downward spiral.

Mary [an assumed name] started shoplifting minor items when she was
11, just for kicks. As she got older, she and her friends started
stealing more often and the items progressed from candy to makeup to
hair products, finally to clothes.

"It was actually like an addiction to steal - probably since I was 11.
I just kept getting away with it," she said Thursday. "It was
basically a rush. The rush of getting away with it."

She was 14 when she started drinking and smoking pot. She quit school
in December 2003 and starting hanging with friends who only wanted to
smoke dope. School simply was no longer a big deal, she said.

Mary agrees with the description of marijuana as a gateway drug that
leads to more serious substances.

Eventually she was caught shoplifting and sentenced to 40 hours
community service at the Salvation Army. But in the meantime, she kept
the same circle of friends and started snorting cocaine. That went on
for four months, although she never became addicted.

"I never paid for it. It was given to me." Perhaps her supplier was
hoping she'd become addicted and then would have to pay for it, she
added.

It's something also touched on by Lola Chapman, co-ordinator of the
youth court diversion program.

"Every one we have asked where they get their pot, 100% say, 'My
friends give it to me'," Chapman said.

She referred Mary to a drug counsellor and she attended a few
half-hour sessions and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. That helped Mary
start to see how drug use was affecting her physically and hurting her
family.

"I just looked in the mirror one day and I said, 'Wow, what am I
doing?'" Mary said.

The program tried to pair her with a mentor, but Mary didn't go to the
meetings. So Lola became her mentor.

"She helped a lot," Mary said. "Without her and the people that work
with her, I wouldn't be here."

But it wasn't just the program that saved her. She had been kicked out
of the house and had a strepped throat and an ear infection. "I was
hungry and I was tired and I was sick," Mary said. Her face was
starting to take on the haggard look of a junkie. Mary stayed with a
non-using friend who pointed out her deterioration.

Her uncle and aunt also had a long talk with her about why she should
return to school. (She's now in Grade 11 after repeating Grade 10 last
year.) She slowly came to see herself as she was and ditched her
druggie friends.

"When you're out doing that all you want to is have fun and party.
What you don't realize is your hurting others. You're in your own
little world. You're not focused on anything else but you and your
partying," she said.

"You have to realize that outside your little world, there's something
wrong and you're hurting yourself."

Her mom saw a change once she joined Lola's program. In fact, Mary
could be considered a model client.

"She loved doing that. There was no pushing her. She wanted to go,"
her mom said. "It was about six months and I had a different girl.
From not caring about school to A's and B's. It was wonderful."

Now that she's clean, Mary thinks of how close she came to
disaster.

"All the time," she said.

Many of her troubles came simply from hanging with the wrong group of
kids. She doesn't dispute the explanation. "That's exactly right."