Mom buoyed as addict son climbs back
January 20, 2010
Donovan Vincent
STAFF REPORTER
Two years ago, Patrick O'Hara was a panhandler addicted to OxyContin who was living on Toronto's streets, estranged from his mother.
The recovering addict has since reconnected with his mom, Kathy Rasmussens, and has housing, thanks to a program run through Toronto's drug treatment court at Old City Hall. It allows non-violent offenders with drug problems to avoid jail when they are charged for offences such as drug possession, trafficking or property crimes.
Participants must provide regular urine samples, attend group counselling sessions and submit to drug treatment. O'Hara, 25, must appear in drug court twice a week to update a judge on his progress. The program lasts about a year.
O'Hara maintains he has turned his life around.
Rasmussens remains cautiously optimistic given that he lived on the streets for about five years and began using drugs at age 16.
The Star first ran stories about O'Hara in 2008 after Rasmussens, a Collingwood real estate agent, wrote a letter to the paper in a desperate bid to get her son off the streets and off drugs.
She had agonized over her son's addictions for years, and spent countless hours driving down from Collingwood and scouring Toronto streets in search of him.
In the two years since his mother's letter, O'Hara has continued to battle his demons. However, there are signs of improvement. Gone is the mental fog. His clothes are tidier, and he's more expressive, emotionally and verbally.
But he admits he still struggles with cravings for crack cocaine and the addictive painkiller OxyContin.
About a month ago, those urges won out. O'Hara, who first wound up in drug court for trafficking last fall, decided to beat his program's 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew.
A police officer comes to his home every other night or so to check up on him. But this time he had a plan.
"I waited for (the officer) to come. He came and I went back out,'' O'Hara says.
He headed for Queen and Spadina, a favourite spot to hang out and purchase drugs. "It only took a matter of 10 minutes standing on the corner for the police to pull up. The officer said, `Mr. O'Hara.' I kind of ignored him and started walking. He said, `Mr. O'Hara, I'm a fast runner, don't even think about it.'"
O'Hara said he broke the rules because "boredom got the better of me.'' Though he bought and used cocaine, he claims that was his only relapse in the past four months.
O'Hara has had housing since November, sharing a five-bedroom home with two others and covering the $350 monthly rent with his Ontario Works cheque.
His mother doesn't delude herself into believing he is cured. Still, she takes comfort in the fact he's back in her life and keeps in touch.
At Christmas, O'Hara returned to Collingwood to be with his mother, stepfather and teenaged brother and sister. He hadn't been home in over five years. "That was the best Christmas present I ever had ... unbelievable,'' O'Hara says.
Getting off the streets has helped him express love for his family, he says. "I've got my emotions back. When you're on the street that long you lose your emotions. You wake up in the morning, and go panhandle, and then do drugs. When you have a routine like that for a couple years, you forget what your life was before. You slip into the underground and your soul gets lost. It's a pretty scary thing.''
O'Hara interrupts the interview to say he must head out to provide a urine sample for his program, then get to drug treatment court at Old City Hall for 2 p.m.
His parents drop him off for his urine sample, but he insists he can make his own way to court.
At 2 p.m., Justice Paul Bentley is presiding, as he has since the drug court's inception in 1998.
First-time observers will notice something unique: Bentley allows program participants to applaud whenever one of their peers reports he or she is not using drugs.
But there will be no applause for O'Hara today because he isn't here.
So Bentley issues a bench warrant with discretion, meaning O'Hara must appear for his next court date for the arrest warrant to be cancelled.
Toronto Star