ENFORCED TREATMENT

Alberta youths hooked on methamphetamine may be forced into treatment.
"Yes. It's one of the things that we are discussing," said Solicitor
General Heather Forsyth yesterday, after being asked if she'd support
such a move.

The mom of a teen addict says it's necessary.

"Voluntary treatment doesn't work," said Jane, not her real name,
whose son was hooked. "It doesn't happen."

Her 16-year-old son is now in a pilot-project treatment program. But
he got there only because he was arrested for crimes to support his
habit, and was jailed in the Edmonton Young Offender Centre.

"That's where he was able to detox long enough to make the decision to
seek treatment," Jane said.

It was a decision he'd never make on the street, Forsyth
agrees.

"I had the opportunity to meet (Jane's) son," the solicitor general
said, and she asked him about his attempts to quit.

"He bald-faced lied to us and said he was clean." In fact, "he was
stoned at that particular time."

Jane said the family barred the boy from their home.

"We had to change the locks," she said, as his "aggressive and violent
behaviour" was a threat to their other children.

"There is no way you can describe living in fear as a parent, every
night wondering if your son is dead or alive."

Until he was arrested, they were helpless.

"We need the ability as parents and as adults to secure children when
they are a danger to themselves," Jane said. And, "We need treatment
facilities that are residential, intensive, long-term."

That's nine to 12 months. And her son is in the only such project,
which is a trial run by the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission
(AADAC).

Health Minister Gary Mar said yesterday there are no plans to expand
treatment options.

"It's always part of the ongoing review of resources that are
available to AADAC," Mar said, noting there are other demands, other
drugs. Meth accounts for "5% of cases involving substance abuse that
AADAC deals with."

As to when AADAC might decide whether to expand, "I don't know what
the answer to that is," Mar said.

The pilot project, which has 10 kids - not all meth addicts - in a
home run by the John Howard Society, will end March 31, said Marilyn
Mitchell, AADAC's manager of youth services.

Amphetamines including meth, speed, bennies and ecstasy were
identified by 5.5% of youth surveyed in 2002 as drugs they'd tried in
the past 12 months.

LSD was identified by 3.9%. Cocaine was named by 2.9%, crack by 2.8%,
marijuana by 27.6% and alcohol by 56.3%.

Authorities claim that 40% of those who inject, snort or smoke meth
become immediately addicted.

It can also be taken in pills or suppositories.