Intervention

Jessica is smart as tack with a lust for life. Unfortunately, it's the life of a heroin addict, living in an abandoned building, being shot up by a boyfriend, that she is committed to. Having spent her youth yearning for an absent, alcoholic father, Jessica followed the footprint of addiction left to her by her father, and now her own children are at risk of losing their mother.

Once a vibrant supermom, Dana numbs the haunting memories of almost dying in an apartment fire with a dangerous cocktail of crack and prescription pills.

As a teenager, Ryan was on the fast track to professional BMX racing until his mother's suicide attempt sidelined his life. Ryan turned to drugs to deal with the trauma and silence around it. Now, at 23, he lives in his parents basement using and dealing heroin, enabled by his parents' inability to face or confront reality.

Gina has spent her life living in the shadow of her domineering Korean mother, and it was not until she started using heroin that she was able to escape the most painful of her memories, being blamed by her mother for having been raped. Now, with absolutely no sense of self-worth, Gina will do anything to get her fix, even at the cost of losing her son. As a young girl, Kaila, 19, was raised in an affluent, image-conscious community where she felt teased for being overweight, and overlooked by her parents. Now, at a mere 80 pounds and eating only a few hundred calories a day, Kaila is literally starving herself to death to have what she's always wanted--to be the center of her family's attention. Her distraught parents have been told by Kaila's doctors to prepare for her death, "Intervention is truly our last option," says Kaila's mother, "Please help us!"

Eric, 31, has been known by his family for being funny, generous and full of life. But his downward spiral into addiction has replaced all of his amazing traits and turned him into a junkie who hustles, steals and pawns.

As a child, Tammy, 26, was forced to look after her younger sisters when her parents would disappear for days on drug binges. A daddy's girl, she has followed in her father's footsteps, spending her days in crack houses, where she regularly descends into a world of drugs and danger. After protecting her little sisters from the hell that was their life, they have now come together in a heartbreaking attempt to save hers.

At the age of 16, Holley witnessed her mother cheating on the father she adored. The strain between mother and daughter never eased and Holley, now 28, acted out through raging alcohol and cocaine abuse. An important member of a loving extended family, Holley's relatives watched in horror as she gave birth to and raised three children in the dangerous fog of addiction. Her family must now act -- to save the children from their mother, and their mother from almost certain death.

Born addicted to opiates, Aimee, 25, is caught in the same cycle of addiction that took her mother's life when Aimee was a little girl. Suffering through a childhood of neglect and a string of abusive boyfriends, Aimee's feelings of worthlessness have led her to a serious fentanyl addiction and a life on the street soliciting men to pay for her habit. Her father, who lives in fear that he will have to bury his daughter as he did her mother, makes one final desperate bid to save her life.

From an early age Andrew's life was rife with abuse, neglect, and tragedy. His father, an addict, left the family when Andrew was a baby. Struggling to raise two children on her own, Andrew's mother worked as an escort, and turned to crack cocaine and alcohol as a means of coping with the emotional and physical abuse meted out by the men in her life. It was a coping mechanism Andrew would emulate as a teenager. When a surrogate father figure was killed in a car accident, Andrew began to spiral. Now, at the age of 22, he is attempting to finish a college degree while on a rampage of crack and alcohol that has him sleeping behind dumpsters and being rushed to the emergency rooms of Windsor, Ontario. Both mother and son need to break free of this dangerous cycle and repair their toxic relationship before Andrew is lost forever.

Candace is a 23-year-old mother who is addicted to cocaine and opiates. Raised in Northern Ontario by a single mother also struggling with addiction, Candace grew up immersed in the drug culture. When she was 14, her father, whom she adored, died suddenly just as she was preparing to move in with him. The devastating loss triggered an extended binge of substance abuse, which included using opiates with her mother while still in her teens. As her grandparents care for her young daughter, Candace continues to spin out of control on a combination of cocaine and morphine in the company of the drug-addicted father of her child. Candace's addiction has destroyed her ability to be a mother. Her family believes an intervention is the only way to get her back and secure a future for her young daughter.

TJ, 38, is a woman living a double life. She alternates between Terry Lynn, a mother of three living a normal domestic life with her husband, Jamie, in the suburbs of Ottawa and TJ, an erratic drug addicted rock singer. Her addiction to crack cocaine has cost her band a record deal, and her family a mother they can count on. A thrill seeker at heart, TJ uses cocaine as a crutch to escape the daily grind. She disappears on binges lasting up to four months, leaving her music and family behind in search of more thrills and more drugs. TJ needs an intervention, not only to bring her back to her friends and family, but to save her from herself.

Jessica is a self-proclaimed party girl with a serious addiction to heroin. Having never dealt with the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, Jessica has been partying since she was 14. Now 22, she spends her days on methadone to stave off withdrawals, and nights injecting heroin, smoking crack and partying with men twice her age. With an alcoholic but well-meaning father who is unable to let his little girl go, and a mother who spoils her rotten, this family needs a serious wake-up call before they lose Jessica forever.

Raised by an alcoholic single mother, Travis, 20, and his sister were moved around the country after their abusive father left the household. When Travis was 15, his sister, with whom he had a strong bond, was gang raped at a party. A year later, he discovered her hanging by the neck in their home. Racked with guilt and devastated by the loss, Travis has spiraled out of control in a ceaseless sea of partying, gambling and alcohol. His mother, several years sober but clearly still suffering from her loss, now fights to save her only remaining child.

With a past that includes a father who abandoned her, multiple sexual assaults, and a stepbrother who died from a heroin overdose, Loren, 26, has turned to alcohol to numb her pain. She drinks up to three liters of wine a day and suffers from seizures, black outs, and violent mood swings. A year ago, Loren entered treatment where she met her girlfriend, Christy (35). The two have been joined at the hip - and bottle - ever since. Christy is near death, and her body is shutting down after years of alcohol and prescription drug abuse. She is tortured by the thought of leaving her two children without a mother when she dies. Two families who have never met join forces to attempt a high-stakes double intervention in a last ditch effort to save their lives.

Wes and Lise have been together since their teens. Both products of traumatic childhoods, they bonded over a mutual interest in marijuana and other recreational drugs. But they were functional, with Wes earning money as a roofer to keep their two young sons in food and shelter. When, at age 30, Wes discovered crack and brought it home to Lise, their happy home turned to chaos. Hopelessly ensnared by their addictions, the couple's focus shifted from caring for their children to finding and using that next rock. Deeply concerned for the children's welfare, Wes's sister Carrie makes one last attempt to save the family.

The daughter of a professional escort and a serial workaholic, Allisha began to develop body image issues at an early age. A bulimic who didn't purge, but rather shed calories through compulsive and extreme workouts, Allisha soon found herself displaying her hard body in local strip clubs. Pain from dancing led to severe abuse of alcohol and opiates. Now she is impossibly addicted to injecting Dilaudid and must play multiple men to pay for her habit. For the first time in years, her family has come together in one final effort to save her life.

The son of an alcoholic father and a mother who suffered from depression, Ziggi grew up ‘odd' and was alienated in the schoolyard. His sensitive, artistic temperament drew the love of a beautiful woman and they had two children together. But that same tortured soul also led him to a severe addiction to crystal meth and GHB. Unable to give it up, Ziggi has lost the girl and is living couch to couch. Without an intervention, his children will be lost to him forever.

A talented dancer, Lyndsay won many awards and was accepted into a prestigious arts school as a child. But in her early teens, her father's suicide triggered a spiral that she is still lost in. After being prescribed Oxycontin for anxiety in her late teens, Lyndsay is now injecting over 1000mg of oxy a day. Living at home with her mother, stepfather, and 12-year-old sister, her life is completely run by the constant need for more pills and all her family can do is watch helplessly from the sidelines. Without an intervention, there is tragedy in this family's future.

Jamie is a crack addict whose struggles began when his family moved from a small rural community in Ontario to Calgary, Alberta. When he was 12, he fell in with the wrong crowd and started disappearing for days at a time. He began stealing from his parents to buy alcohol, a habit that eventually led to stealing liquor to sell in the street. His alcohol addiction escalated to crack, opiates, and just about anything he could get his hands on. Now 26, Jamie is estranged from his entire family, and has trouble towing the line in the shelters he sometimes calls home. He wanders the streets and parks of Oshawa, Ontario, a solitary figure in search of his next fix. Meanwhile, he has a four-year-old daughter he has never met. Without an intervention he will likely not see 35, and more importantly, will have no chance of giving his daughter the father she deserves.

Raised by two hard-partying parents, Sarah, 32, began using drugs as a teen. When her parents divorced, her drug use escalated and continued through failed relationships with three different men with whom she had children. Now, she has lost custody of all three and her family must help raise them while Sarah spirals into a dangerous dependence on Hyrdromorphone, speed, cocaine and morphine. Without an intervention Sarah's family fears she is one needle away from an early grave.

The victim of serial abuse at the hands of a male family friend, Meghan endured a tortured childhood compounded by the fact her mother was too depressed to raise her. When she became too old to stay in the foster home that became her only happy refuge, Meghan found herself on the streets. Now 20, she seeks to ease the pain through her music, poetry and a 4-points-a-day heroin habit. Without an intervention, this artist will die before anyone truly hears her song.

Smart and outgoing, Katie was the star of the family - she traveled the world as an elite Irish dancer. She could have made it her career - but she got derailed into a life of partying and drugs that has led her down a dangerous path of cocaine and heroin addiction. Katie is now a shell of her former self. She lives with her boyfriend who deals drugs and supplies her with a weekly $2,000 fix. Although Katie's addiction has devastated her family, they unite for one last chance to save her. But Katie puts everything in jeopardy when she attempts to shut down the documentary before the intervention can take place.

At 27, Wesley is a veteran of crystal meth use. He has been using since he was 17, and has been dealing meth and other drugs for most of his 20's. He goes days without sleep, and lives a lifestyle that is one long party. Consumed by guilt over the death of his best friend on crystal meth when Wes was 17, and devastated by the loss of his father whose funeral he couldn't even attend because of a stretch in jail, Wes has chosen to make a living off the drug that has made his life a nightmare.

David, 32, has barely known a life that didn't include addiction. His mother was a cocaine addict and his father, who struggled with alcoholism, died at an early age when David was a child. Once a provincial Taekwondo champion, family tragedy, including the death of his stepfather by overdose, has led David to a dangerous addiction to heroin and crystal meth. While his mother and much of his family have been in recovery for years, without an intervention, David is destined to be the next family casualty. 

Suffering from a severe eating disorder, depression and suicidal tendencies, Cassandra is a young woman who has lost her way. Growing up, she felt out of control and neglected - constantly left alone while her parents' volatile relationship slowly disintegrated. Bullied by her peers for being 'chunky', Cassie struggled in school as well. Depressed and angry, she began bingeing and purging in an effort to control her body and her environment. Now, at 18, Cassie purges up to 15 times a day and takes anywhere from 10 to 30 laxatives.

With four children, a long career working for a ferry company in British Columbia, and a successful import/export business, John, 50, had it all. Five years ago, exhausted from the stress of a failing marriage and juggling two careers, he smoked crack cocaine for the first time and watched his world begin to fall apart. Now also addicted to heroin, John lives mostly on the street, while his family live in fear of the phone call that will deliver their worst nightmare.

Brad, 50, lives in a converted tractor-trailer and sells scrap metal for cash. He is also severely addicted to crack. Growing up in a rural town in New Brunswick, Brad was extremely skilled with his hands, and ended up constructing the home he lived in with his ex-wife. After moving to Ontario and starting a family, his life took a dangerous turn. Brad was badly electrocuted on a routine job cutting down a tree. The injury was life changing, and Brad lost everything. Defeated, he turned to crack cocaine.