A father’s anti-drug crusade

EVEN though Derek Jennings worked in addiction support, he didn’t know his own child had started using drugs. “Being a man, I said, ‘I’ll stop it’,” he says of his 14-year-old’s addiction.

“But I was powerless, there was nothing I could do. That was one of my biggest difficulties — that I couldn’t do anything about it.

“My child was in the house, out of the house; was robbing, homeless, in foster care; came back to the house, was on drugs, off drugs, on treatment, off treatment,” he says of the four years his child was addicted.