My 18 yr old son is using IV methamphetamines

[janp]

I am wondering what to do about my son. He is using needles and speed. He thinks he can control himself, but, it is obvious that he can't. I have a hard time with the 'tough love' route. I am afraid that it will push him down further into a bad life.

[Mike Bradley]

Dear Parent,
Get to a good adolescent shrink IMMEDIATELY to get some advice on how to proceed. The shrink will need to get a full history before advising you on what to do. Your son is playing Russian Roulette with his drugs, and one time that round will go off. The shrink may suggest turning your kid into the police. As horrendous as that sounds, it might be the only way to get him to stop using long enough to consider treatment. Sometimes it takes a judge, mandated treatment, probation officers, and drug tests to break through the denial of addiction. Sometimes you do have to love your kid enough to do such things, if there are no other options.
Attention parents of addicts: Any other thoughts for this parent?

[janp]

You recommend getting him to a shrink, but, he refuses to go. I have had him in counseling and group therapy for drug kids, and he says it is a waste of time, and refuses to go. He has been sited as a minor, and now as past 18 for minor in posession of alcohol. He has a drinking problem too. The only way I was able to get him to counseling was because it was a condition of his probation.
I work 40 hrs a week, but, I do try and keep tabs on what is going on in my home, and yesterday I called home from work and found his drug friends answered the phone. They said he was asleep and could not wake up to get the phone, so I told them I was calling the sheriff and having them come over.
When the sheriff called from my home, I asked him to assess my son for drugs and he said that he was not a drug cop and so that his assessment would not hold up in court....if he was to arrest him.
I got home from work and my son was drunk and sleeping. He had gotton angry earlier at his father and he ripped his bedroom door off the hinges, and punched holes in the sheetrock in two places. Then he screamed obscenities at me and told me to get out of his face when I tried to find out what had gone on.
He then cried that he wanted to die over and over, and said he just wanted to be gone, and he wished he had never been born.

[Mike Bradley]

Dear Parent,
Your last letter exactly portrays the bind that drug using kids find themselves in: they cry for help and then fight it when it's offered.
You still need to enlist the aid of a good adolescent shrink (even though your son is 18). Let him or her guide you on how to try and get this kid into treatment. For now, keep the zero-tolerance policy, but keep telling this kid that you love him, that you hate his disease, and that together you can beat it. You might say it a thousand times, but don't quit on this boy. If you quit telling him there are answers to his nightmare, he might quit as well.
Hang in there. The stakes never get higher than they are right now.

[janp]

I talked with my sister and she said I should have my son committed. Is that something that can be done? or, Is it something that should be done?

[Mike Bradley]

Dear Parent,
In most states a forced hospitalization can only occur when the individual presents a clear and present danger to himself or to others. Drug use usually does not qualify for this. Further, these actions usually only hold the person for 24 hours or so.
Please take my advice and get some local professional advice NOW. I cannot properly answer any further questions to help you since I don't have any information on your family, and because I don't know your state mental health laws. Please get that help today. There is no time to lose.
Good luck.