DRUG-ADDICTED SON FALLING THROUGH CRACKS

"He's in no man's land," say the parents of a 17-year-old youth who
has become estranged from his family for months at a time because of
his involvement with drugs.

Susan Jones and Peter Smith (not their real names) say their son has
admitted he has a drug problem, but they cannot find him the immediate
help he needs to stay off drugs such as crystal meth.

Although they have received many sympathetic responses from front-line
workers, their son cannot access many services because he hasn't been
in trouble with the law and doesn't come from a battered home. They've
been through programs at his school and other agencies, but none have
offered sustained help.

Finally, they were referred to drug treatment programs for youth such
as the A.T.L.A.S. youth rehabilitation program in Terrace, but found
there was a six-month wait-list.

"By the time his name comes up, he is gone again," said Smith, who has
been through a number of cycles with his son coming home, promising to
go to school and getting treatment and then meeting up with his
friends and getting caught up in the drugs again.

"When people reach out for help, they need it right away," Jones said,
adding she's frustrated by the millions spent on a safe-injection site
for drug addicts in Vancouver when youths, who need help to avoid a
life of addiction, cannot access services.

Beth Richardson, a Northwest Addiction Services counsellor, admits her
office cannot always deal with people who say they need immediate
treatment. Residential treatment centres have wait-lists and, although
it is not always the case, she said her office is currently booked for
a month in advance.

She added her office does everything it can to provide counselling or
point people to other local services, such as Narcotics Anonymous,
Alcoholics Anonymous or services at Positive Living North West or with
private counsellors, but, when it comes to substance abuse, there are
no quick fixes or simple answers.

"Sometimes all we are left with is adapting our own response to what
someone else is doing because we can't always change what that person
is doing."

Nathan Cullen, one of the facilitators of the recent Crystal Meth
Forum, said providing some kind of integrated response is the goal of
a new communitywide effort.

"We're looking at what kind of compassionate work people can do to get
a young person where they need to be."

Richardson said a common thread between people with substance abuse
issues is they feel they do not belong.

"So many are excluded from so many different things at school. Taking
drugs is one way of feeling that you belong."

Even though young people often get involved in drugs for recreation or
"something to do," they don't always keep using for the same reason.
They get dependent, said Richardson, and then families are faced with
the consequences.

"Drugs impair a person's capacity to have relationships not only with
themselves, but with other human beings. What drugs do to
relationships is one of the most tragic things that I see."

Jones and Smith cannot be certain their son is on crystal meth, but
they have spoken with his now-reformed friends who say they have done
the drug with him. The parents know their son stays with other youths
or families in the the area - people who don't ensure he goes to
school or to work. He has lost his job and has been expelled from school.

Last summer, they found support from one RCMP officer, who was willing
to pound on the doors of households their son is known to frequent.
That officer would bring their son home and help them understand drug
issues and the lives of the families he runs to.

Some have said the parents have been too strict on their son,
enforcing curfews a teenager would find onerous.

However, Jones and Smith said they have watched their son lose more
than 70 pounds and turn from a decent and sensitive child into a cold
and uncaring stranger.

Jones was heartened by a recent article in The Interior News in which
a youth shared his experience with crystal meth.

"At least it provided us with a level of understanding of how, and
why, our son has chosen this path."

Otherwise, they are left to scroll Web sites and hope any phone calls
that come in the middle of the night are not to tell them their son is
injured, or worse, dead.

"Drug dealers are destroying lives and families," said Jones, who is
disheartened to think her son is heading toward emotional, physical
and social self-destruction.