Available, and the right kind of programs.

My son wants to stop using ice. He has organised detox a number of times, and is always successful. It is the next stage, rehab, where he fails.

Rehab is very difficult to get into, the waiting lists are enormous, some of them are for only six weeks (yet it takes 90 days before your brain reprograms itself), so these rehabs achieve nothing, except they keep you clean for a while.

While in rehab he learnt where to buy heroin, so when he can't afford ice, he uses heroin.

He has already overdosed once and the ambos had to use Narcan to save him.

Another rehab he has attended allows participants to socialise off the premises after only two weeks. They get a few hours each day in the afternoon when they can go to the big local shopping centre. Addicts mixing together unsupervised is a recipe for disaster.

Another rehab program seems to have it right. In the first two weeks, there is no contact with the outside world and you are never left alone. For the first three months, you are constantly supervised and you have to work on the premises.

It is total retraining for the addict. But the waiting list is long, and my son has been to their information session, been to an assessment, rings them constantly and they haven't returned the calls.

(I hope this is because they are overwhelmed by requests for their services.)

When he wants the help, he can't get it. He sees this rehab as his only chance, due to its strict environment.