Pubdate: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Lindor Reynolds Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) DESPERATE MOM'S HOPE IS TO GET TEEN INTO REHAB Troubled Girl Developed Addiction To Crack, Meth LIZ Smith's daughter will turn 17 in the Manitoba Youth Centre next month. As strange as it seems, her mother couldn't be happier. "She's doing incredible," says the Island Lakes mom. "She's gained 10 pounds. She's doing school work. She's not high. This is the best thing that could have happened to her. "You've got to understand, I used to worry about where she'd go to university. Now I worry about whether or not she's going to be alive. That changes your focus pretty fast." Smith (her name has been changed) recently called me to offer her support for the province's plan to introduce mandatory, involuntary five-day detox programs for drug-addicted kids. She openly admits she's using the youth centre for the same purpose. She says that's the only hope for her addicted teenager. She's fighting hard to keep her kid inside. Her only regret? That the detox program isn't already in effect. "We've got to save our kids," she says. "It just seems like I'm fighting to do that. Why can't we force them into rehab? We're the parents." Sometime in the fall of 2005, Darcy Smith developed a quick addiction to crack and meth. She got in with the wrong crowd, had clashes at home and then adolescent rebellion mixed with an increasing, desperate need to get high. Smith, a legal assistant, relates their story dispassionately. She sits in the kitchen of her dream home, a well-kept place in a nice neighbourhood that hides her secrets. Her little girl has been selling herself to keep supplied with drugs, she says. She has run away from home, been kicked out, come back begging. Darcy, with the sort of looks most frequently described as "angelic," was eventually implicated in two crimes. In the first, she allegedly cased a convenience store before acquaintances robbed it. In the second, she allegedly arranged to have her parents' house robbed. They suspected her, Smith says, for a variety of reasons. The burglars knew there was cash in the family Bible. Her daughter's room wasn't searched. The family dog was carefully locked away in a bedroom. To prove her daughter's involvement, Liz Smith contacted her and offered to buy back some family jewelry, her son's birth certificate and a few other trinkets. For 20 bucks, a deal was made. The cops picked her up, but she was so high they couldn't interview her. "You need to understand that we love our daughter more than anything in the world," says Smith. "We've just been so frustrated that there's nothing we can do because she's 16. We can't get her away from a 26-year-old boyfriend. We're not even allowed to look at her medical records. "She's 16. She's not mature or responsible enough to look after herself, but we're not allowed to do anything." And that's the problem. Even as our kids live at home, loving the free laundry and the cable TV, we're told that we really have no power. Smith can't force her daughter into a drug rehab program. She can't chase off the boyfriend. She couldn't do anything, but have her daughter arrested and refuse to bail her out. What kind of crazy world is this? "We've done everything we can think of. We've found long-term, residential programs, but we can't make her go. As soon as she gets out, that's it. She's sober now, but we can't do anything to keep her straight. We need some system changes. We're living through this. Let us have some input." Darcy Smith entered the remand centre on Feb. 19. Her court date is set for April 28. When she's released -- and she will be -- there is nothing standing between her and a relapse. "She has so much potential," says her mom. "I'm just afraid it's all going to be wasted because we can't get her into a treatment program." We need to get the detox program working fast. Then we really need to give some power back to parents. - --- MAP posted-by: Tom