TORONTO, ONTARIO– A Canadian father says his addict daughter’s drug-use has been out of control. So much so that he recently broke the law, not allowing her out of his house.
16-year-old Paige O’Leary typical teenage life has been interrupted by addiction to dangerous drugs.
Her father, Sean, says her addiction to Xanax and cocaine terrifies he and his wife. So he recently took a desperate measure, forcing his daughter to stay at home and stay off drugs.
“By holding them in your house and not letting them out to do drugs, you’re breaking the law. Any options as a family you’re left with requires us to break the law. In order to help our 16-year-old kid, who is, in my opinion as her father is at times close to death,” O’Leary says.
His daughter though, knew her rights. Paige recently called 911 to help her, and police officers came and picked her up.
“I ask them to drive me to Kanata… just so i can go do drugs,” Paige says.
“They just proceeded to drive her to Tim Horton’s in Kanata. So in the end she got her free Uber ride she wanted in the first place. And there was dad sitting back at home going, what the heck happened,” O’Leary says.
Police in Ottawa say unfortunately, they aren’t surprised by the situation.
“If they’re over 16, there’s nothing we can do to make that youth stay, they have that freedom to go at any point in time if they wish,” Ottawa Police Constable Cory Mcaree says.
“It’s a scary situation for families and for everybody,” O’Leary says.
O’Leary went public with his campaign to help teens with addiction earlier this year. He founded a support group called “we the parents”.
