He Wants Money and Cigarettes While in Treatment

An Allies in Recovery member and mother of two addicted sons is at a loss. Should she bring the money her son is requesting, along with cigarettes, to the treatment facility?
This post originally appeared on our Member Site blog, where experts respond to members’ questions and concerns. To learn more about membership, see our Membership Benefits page.
Now what can you do? Keep moving forward with treatment
Your son may have signed a release that allows you to talk to the CSS. If this isn’t the case, ask him to do so. Explain that you are only interested in next steps and not the details of what he shares with the program.
From CSS, your son can be sent to a residential program or a three-quarter house. If there isn’t room, he can be stepped down to a TSS, a transitional support service bed that should hold him until a bed in the community opens up.
I suggest you hold your line….. Keep the restraining order in place. Your son will be welcome in your home when he can show you that he is stable and off drugs. We’ve written a few blogs posts about your home as a reward (see this link).
For now, your son is homeless. The CSS needs to know this. Whether or not your son has signed a release for you to talk to the clinicians, I suggest you call them and let them know that your son is homeless. It may make a difference in what is available to him after release from the CSS.
“I am at a loss and I don’t know what to do. My son has been an active addict for 6 years and overdosed 5 times.
A week ago Monday I had to call the police because my son was shooting up cocaine in my bathroom. That was my breaking point. I told him to leave my house. I also had put a restraining order on him. He then contacted me on the 7th day having finally run out of money and told me that he got a bed at Lahey Behavioral health Detox. I brought him there and now he is going to a css bed in Quincy. Now he wants me to bring him money and smokes. This is where I am at a loss. He said that he can get through this if he has smokes and that this is no life for him if no one wants to help him. He is so mad at me.
My other son was also shooting cocaine and is now in a drug program in jail. I send him money for his canteen, a fact which my other son brings to my attention. What do I do? I am desperate.”