Chapter 3 - Uppers: Voices of Addiction

Crack
This interview can be read to get a sense of what a person goes through that causes them dependency problems with psychoactive drugs and compulsive behaviors. The interview also helps one grasp the forces that propel people into recovery and keep them there.

The road to addiction usually begins in childhood. Sometimes it’s the overall atmosphere and sometimes it’s a specific incident and the subsequent consequences that lead to drug use. John talks about the lifetime it took to get into recovery. He started with marijuana but eventually settled on crack cocaine as his drug of choice. In terms of addictive liability, smoking cocaine (crack) and injecting heroin are the most addictive drugs. (Smoking cigarettes is just as addictive.)

John is a 67-year-old recovering crack cocaine user.

PDF File: Crack.pdf