Citations & Excerpts

The Palm Beach Post
"This Day and Age"
Bea Lewis
January 10, 2004

Question:
A friend recently said her son is a cocaine user. "It's a social thing: he's not an addict. Kids today are all into it." I was shocked.

Could my friend be in denial, or is this really not as big a problem as I think it is? What is the difference between someone taking recreational drugs and being an addict?

Answer:
I asked Bruce Cotter, an expert on alcohol and drug addiction, and the author of WHEN THEY WON'T QUIT. He explained that your friend is sadly and dangerously misinformed, as "kids" today are not all into drugs, not by a long shot.

"Whether or not your friend's son is addicted to cocaine is yet to be determined," he said, but "using cocaine as a social endeavor is the same as playing Russian roulette for recreation." Cotter, a former addict himself, said every addict he's ever known began his or her drug use on a social basis.

Your friend should understand the facts of her son's potentially dangerous addiction. For starters, she might try a copy of Cotter's book, or check his Web site, whentheywontquit.com.

Another source is the National Institute on Drug Abuse Web site: www.NIDA.NIH.GOV. Find cocaine under "common drugs of abuse."

The more your friend knows, the less she'll think her son's drug use is just a social thing.

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