Pubdate: Sun, 07 Aug 2005 Source: Northwest Herald (IL) Section: Style Copyright: 2005 Northwest Herald Newspapers Contact: http://www.nwherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2762 Author: Rick Atwater Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) DRUGS TAKE TOLL EARLY I talked recently with a guy I'll call Barry. Barry is 25 years old, is married with two little kids, is an alcoholic a and cocaine addict and has had two heart attacks. He is trying, at this point, to stay clean and sober and is on a waiting list to get into a funded treatment program. He has been waiting four weeks now and has managed to stay straight. This is the longest period of being straight, he says, since he was 13. I guess you know by now, from your own observations or from reading my column, there are as many types of addicts with as many types of stories as there are people to tell them. Barry's is worth telling because of the miraculous nature of his recovery, the timing and perhaps the severity of his illness. Barry's family was wealthy, business-oriented and neglectful. Barry was left to his own devices from the age of 10. He started periodic pot use at this time and had graduated to cocaine by 13. He was a big kid and looked older, so he traveled with an older, faster crowd and by high school was selling both pot and cocaine. He was meeting people who had lots of money (something he was used to) and people who had little regard for others, laws or themselves. By 15 he was freebasing (smoking) cocaine and drinking regularly. At 15, his girlfriend moved into his house. His parents handled this by ignoring its existence as they did with most things that Barry did. Barry recalls one thing his dad would do was buy him beer, take him drinking and look the other way when he got high. Barry says he knew that his father knew he was a drug addict. At 19 he started his own business and with his good business sense and sales abilities he built a success; so much so that his employees carried the workload and Barry spent his time in the bar most days and smoking coke as well. The drug bills mounted, the business went bankrupt, the girlfriend was threatening to leave and Barry overdosed on coke and had his first heart attack at age 20. This was not enough to stop him, and two more years of regular cocaine use resulted in a second overdose and three days in cardiac ICU. For some reason, never having thought seriously about recovery before, Barry decided he desperately needed help and on a night about three weeks ago, without even really knowing what he was doing, walked into an AA meeting at a local hospital. He told me he hasn't looked forward to seeing his kids and being with his family this much in years. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth