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But she is also angry.

DeSousa, who trained as a nurse, says she battled with schools, outreach groups, courts, hospitals and politicians over the past eight years in a fruitless effort to get help for her son.

There are simply not enough affordable and instantly-available services such as detox houses and recovery programs. And a lack of early intervention allowed Christian’s addiction to worsen, so that when it was full-blown DeSousa lacked the legal power to force him into the treatment she thought he desperately needed.

“My message is that we need help… Our system is very, very broken,” said the Surrey mom.

“(My son) is not capable of making lucid and rational decisions for his health, well-being or his life. There should be some type of resource for us as parents to be able to step in and forcibly put our kids in rehabilitation or hospital care.”

Today, Christian is in treatment because she demanded he be released from court into her home, where she detoxed him for 10 days before he agreed to go to the recovery centre.

But DeSousa says it should not have taken so long or been so hard. And she is not the only voice calling for change — although opinions on the type of change needed seem as varied as the personal backgrounds of drug users.

The B.C. Centre on Substance Use has been working on a report aimed at

strengthening recovery, which it hopes will begin to transform the addiction care system. The report will be released later this month.