COMPULSORY DETOX FOR CHILD ADDICTS IS A WORTHWHILE IDEA

Children and Family Development Minister Stan Hagen has done B.C. families
a disservice by ruling out a law to let parents force their drug-addicted
kids into detox.

You would have thought that Hagen, in his position, would understand the
misery and degradation that drug addiction causes both children and their
families, and wouldn't rule out any reasonable option for combatting it.

The minister argues that you cannot force folks to change their lifestyle,
and that "you can't legislate change in people."

But that is what government does on a daily basis. It legislates change
over everything from violent crime to tobacco smoking and the wearing of
seat-belts.

The Alberta government, for example, is introducing legislation to allow
parents to go to court to prove that their kids (those 18 or under) are
drug addicts and have them checked into government treatment facilities for
five days.

As Province reporter Matthew Ramsey notes, legislators in Saskatchewan are
contemplating a similar forced-treatment law.

Kamloops dad Mike Youds thinks such a bill might have helped his teenage
son when he needed it: "What's the alternative? Permanent or emotional
damage or death."

Hagen should listen to concerned parents like Youds and re-think his position.

At the least, he should be encouraging extensive public debate on this
life-and-death issue.