Treatment Centre Offers Tough Love

There's a trend in the addiction treatment industry toward harm
reduction and so-called wet housing where an occasional relapse is
tolerated, but Geoff Smith is having none of it.

As a director of the Cedars Residential Treatment Centre on Vancouver
Island, Smith believes in tough love and using drugs at the facility
will get you thrown out on your ear.

Smith was in town Tuesday giving a presentation on the facility to
the Philosopher's Cafe at the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre.

He also believes in taking addiction treatment one step further and
treating the family as well as the addict themselves.

"Addiction is a family disease in every way," declares Smith, in an
interview after his presentation. "It has a heavy impact on the
family. Just ask anyone who's grown up with an addict. At the very
least, there's a stress and anxiety that doesn't exist in other households."

Smith points to California where the child of an active alcoholic can
be apprehended by the state.

"It's considered a form of child abuse," he adds.

As such, Cedars also offers a residential Discovery program for the
relatives of addicts that Smith describes as "therapeutic and
experiential," where they can begin to understand how addiction has
affected them and their relationships.

As part of the program, one family member of an addict is allowed to
take the program at the same time as their loved one undergoes
treatment. "We think it's important to include family as early in the
intervention as possible," Smith says.

The addicts themselves are invited to spend as long as they wish at
the facility located between Victoria and Duncan on a picturesque
60-acre piece of land. "Most stay about six weeks," he said.

People entering the facility can expect a full physical and mental
assessment, help in developing a recovery plan as well as a two year follow-up.

Treatment at the private facility is not cheap, running from $275 a
day or $14,000 for six weeks, but Smith defends the cost. "Some
addicts will spend that on a weekend cocaine run," he says.

Besides the family program, the facility also offers workplace
programs for addicted employees which besides the initial treatment,
also features an intensive two-year monitoring and follow-up program.

Smith offers no apologies for using the faith-based Twelve Steps
program and sticking to the approach that some in the addiction
treatment industry consider ineffective. "We don't believe in harm
reduction," he said. "It just leads them back to their drug of choice."

He also decries any move toward legalizing marijuana, despite its
reputation as one of the less harmful recreational drugs.

"No other drug has more of an impact on eye-hand coordination. It's a
major depressant and hallucinogen. The stuff they are getting now is
nothing like the '60s marijuana," says Smith. "It's the drug that
produces the most brain damage especially amongst the young kids that
are using it."

For more information on Cedars Residential Treatment Centre, go to
www.cedarsatcobblehill.com.