Let him self-destruct and be prepared to pick up the scraps. If you and his parents are there to help repair the things he destroyed it may help him gain perspective.

 

Actually dealing with an addiction means dealing with the root causes of the of it (trauma, loss, other emotional baggage). Obviously whatever has been troubling him has been "solved" by the addiction.

As much as it might pain the parents (and other loved ones), I would strongly suggest no one give him money, no matter what he says it's for. My experience says among the best liars are addicts and addictions are extremely difficult to successfully treat.

Good luck with this difficult situation.

 

A drug addition is a tough thing to deal with, esp. if it is someone close to you. I know what your going through, a family friend was hiding his coke/pain killer addiction from us ever since I've know him. Now that he's going through some rough times with his marrage it's really come to show it's ugly head. It wasn't until he almost died of an OD that he realised he had a problem and willingly went to rehad. Like others have said, there isn't much you can do until he realises he has a problem. Until then just be there to catch him when he falls.


Good luck.

 

damn...whre the heck this lil kid gets his money from ?

 

grab a cheese burger, watch menace to society, and get back to us

 

he is a goner.

 

Where does he get the money to be on his own, finance the drugs, and gamble online?

 

My wife's brother is a hardcore meth addict and has been addicted to it for 5 years now. He had his own business, 2 kids and a wife, and was balling out of control til he started hanging out w/Latrell Sprewell's brother (yes the nba player's brother), and began partying alot. Before you know it he was gambling 50grand a night and smoking meth. Now a days he lives w/his mom, hasn't worked in 3 years, no e55 or m3 anymore, kids have no relationship what so ever, and he's hit his all time low. Windows are broken frequently throughout the house, holes are always punched in the walls, fish sauce is poored over every inch of carpet in the house, and you can catch him on occasions walking butt naked around the neighborhood, and mine you its a pretty high class neighborhood. He's been in and out of rehab, mental instatutions and jail. I say the best thing for him was jail, but when he gets out he goes straight to the dealer since its w/in walking distance from his moms house. If your buddy could be locked up for a few months @ the county jail, that would be the first thing I would suggest, next would be to immediately have him relocated to a relative where he wouldn't have any access to any type of drugs, no access to drugs, no drug use. Has my wife's brother sobered up, hell no, he's done physically and mentally, your friend on the other hand @ his age has a chance to change, unfortunately its up to you guys to provide him w/that change since he doesn't give a rats ass about his life @ the moment.

 

It's extremely difficult to do much of anything now that he's legal. The only option I can think of is tracking him down yourself and having a talk with him. Obviously you can't force him into any programs, so become the program yourself.

 

Very good question.

I would try to get him into some type of rehab or counseling. It may or may not work but if it were my kid I would go for it. There are a lot of programs offered by government and privately funded orginizations. Hoping that cops bust him should be a last resort. If thrown in jail, he would be forced to dry out and couldn't gamble but he would end up with a criminal record which he will obviously hurt his future. I work in Corrections and have seen first hand the effects drugs have on people. Hitting rock bottom doesn't always help. I've seen many come in withdrawing hard; vomitting, shaking, delusional, dehydrated, can't eat or sleep. Then they dry out, get released and a week later it's the same thing.