Father's drug plea
For so long I have read about the plight of families with drug- affected children and, to be honest, I have never given it much thought, apart from thinking that these people must be losers from dysfunctional families.
Well, I am here to tell you that all of us will be affected either directly or indirectly by drug addiction, irrespective of family background.
My wife and I first realised there was something going on when our 26-year-old son became secretive.
We were in denial until we were unfortunate enough to catch him using this poison in the garage late one night.
It is a sight I will never forget: a distorted, very red-faced young man who gave us as evil a look as you could imagine.
Our son now suffers from severe anxiety, depression and psychotic episodes.
He will not leave the house unless it is to purchase this poison, has lost his job and has no future.
He was such a good-looking young man and you would never meet a nicer person.
We had so many hopes for him, but they are long lost.
The reality is that unless he, like so many other users, makes the very tough decision to stop using, then it will never happen.
We can only support the addicted person; we can't make it stop for them.
In the past three years we have had our son to every public and private facility that exists in WA and spent a large amount of money trying to find the answers.
To be brutally honest, the public system only caters for those who are going to self- harm or potentially harm others, while the private system is a disgrace.
My son says these facilities hand out more drugs than you can get on the street.
They are very big on group talking sessions and say they have great success with people opening up about their problems.
These facilities may be excellent for those suffering from conditions other than addiction.
We need purpose-built facilities with areas to exercise, learn about nutrition and discuss career opportunities.
Politicians who are reading this and care enough to take action, here are some suggestions.
We must stop individual chemicals being legally purchased from the UK and the US.
There must be non-negotiable long prison sentences for those who peddle this poison.
Educate the young by taking addicts who have damaged their brains into schools so young people who think it is cool to take ice can see the eventual effects.
And for God's sake change the name.
"Ice" sounds cool to the young people. Change it to "Pus".
