Thanks Avie and Stephanie. I appreciate your responses, and I totally understand what you're saying. I am in another state, far away from the situation in New Orleans. I'm trying to help my sister, who's having the toughest time of all of this because this is her daughter.
I have read the other boards and have tried to give my sister some useful information. I have been on this board and read every message since this problem was discovered. We looked up nar-aron, and there doesn't seem to be any in Louisiana. I'm trying to get her to go to a support meeting, but like I said she has her own mental health issues. My niece is still using and doesn't have any more money for her drugs. My sister doesn't think she'll steal from her, but I know she will. My own son stole very precious jewelry from me and sold them for who knows how much.
But the big problem I have is that my niece doesn't have an appt to that clinic for 2 weeks. What will happen in the meantime? She will do what most addicts do when they need money, and she will be doing things and using drugs that can be more harmful than methadone.
My personal feeling is that since she won't go into a treatment program, then she doesn't want to quit and is just hoping to get through 2 weeks in hopes of getting into the clinic that will put her on the methadone.
My thinking is that if this were my daughter, I'd contact the police or someone and ask for advice about getting her locked up. She has stolen money and is staying in her old apt. after getting evicted. I would do whatever I had to do to get her off the street--whether she wanted the help or not. Is that wrong?