‘Desperate to save her’: B.C. parents push for change, want involuntary care for drug-addicted children

The parents of a Kamloops, B.C., teen who has overdosed four times in less than two months are desperate to get their daughter into treatment.

But she is refusing help, and now the parents are pleading for changes to legislation around involuntary care.

“We are really desperate to save her,” said the 16-year-old’s emotional mom.

CTV News is not identifying the parents to protect their teen.

They said she began having difficulties about two years ago. She started skipping school, coming home late and sometimes not coming home at all. They said at some point, she began using crystal meth.

“The behaviors just got very violent and erratic, almost daily,” the father said from their home, where there are still small holes in a living room wall from one of those violent incidents.

The mom said on that occasion, her daughter started hitting her with a brush and throwing it.

“She began slapping me in the face and pulling my hair,” the mom recalled.

The parents told CTV News that their daughter’s threats and violence left them concerned for their daughter’s well-being and safety—and their own.

“We were fearful to the point where we were essentially barricading ourselves in the bedroom with heavy end tables and locking the door,” the teen’s dad said.

They believe their daughter, who started hanging out on the streets and spending time with men in their 30s and 40s, has been traumatized by a sexual assault. They said there is an ongoing RCMP investigation.

They also said police have been called to their home dozens of times in the past six months because of incidents involving their daughter.

In one such incident, Mounties were called after an argument escalated between the mom and the teen.

The mom recorded audio of what happened.

In the recording played for CTV News, the daughter is heard swearing and yelling at her mom, who tries to remain calm and asks her daughter to stop.

Then noises are heard and the mother is screaming, clearly afraid.

“She was pushing me,” the mom recalled.

“She literally grabbed her by the chest and thrashed her around like a rag doll,” explained the dad.

After this incident, the parents called police again and gave temporary custody of their daughter to social services.

The parents said that for at least a year, they have been trying to get their daughter help.

“They kept reminding me they can’t force her into treatment. It all has to be voluntary,” the father said.

“I believe that the laws on the books right now are rendering parents helpless, where we can’t involuntary put our children into care, into treatment care to get them off the street.”

Premier David Eby said a provincially appointed chief scientific advisor has been researching the issue of involuntary care and youth.

“He has been doing that work, that engagement with medical professionals, various stakeholders…and is currently incorporating their feedback into the draft guidelines that he has prepared. And we hope to be able to release those as soon as possible,” the premier said.

The leader of the B.C. Conservative Party, John Rustad, also weighed in.

“If you have a 12-year-old daughter who is addicted, as a parent, should you have the right to put your child into treatment and recovery? And I believe you should,” he said.

The teen’s dad said something has to be done right away.

“I strongly believe that if you force your child into treatment, in a locked-up facility where they can’t leave, they have no choice now but to wean themselves off of this drug. They’re safe from their predators and they have access 24/7 to counsellors and doctors and psychiatrists,” he said.

The parents fear their daughter could lose her life to an overdose.

They hope for changes that will save not just her, but other children.

In a letter he wrote his daughter and read out to CTV News, the father said nothing she could do would stop him from loving her.

However, he said his heart is heavy and that she was living a “dangerous life.”

“Your mother and I love you so much,” the emotional father said as he read the letter.

“I’m not giving up on you. I will keep praying, loving and hoping, until you come home.”