friends help: My friend is addicted to Crack Cocaine, and I’m wondering whether I ought to tell his mother/neighbours/authorities etc. - Help.com

ok - that’s a start.
I’m keen to do this - but its not exclusively my responsibilty

oh yeah - there’s a problem - I”m living in his apartment and his mother only speaks french.

this is a really weird one actually. Because if he goes into Rehab - I get his apartment. So you can see my motivation right?
Otherwise I might just leave him be. I feel a little bit as if I would be taking advantage of his weakness.

Actually yes. He does have two childhood friends who clearly don’t have drug problems and are both quite stable friendly and supportive… I don’t think they know about his habit though.

I can definitely tell them without making problems.

well he gets back from Japan in 3 months… so we’ve got plenty of time to plan - I just don’t want to scare him off coming home -

how long do you think Rehab will take?

ok - that’s good that’s all going to have to be in French though - so I’m going to need help with that.
Hopefully he will have a difficult time finding it in Japan, so it might be easier for him to come off it when he returns…
actually - yeah - he’d better not come back to his old routine… that would be a recipe for disaster

That is good advice -

alright - so - but I need to be exactly careful about talking to him about it - talking to his friends - his mother - etc.

goal one - don’t upset the apple cart - otherwise he could OD,etc, or run away to another country - or stay in Japan
goal two - warm his mother to the topic of drug abuse without telling her the specifics of her son’s addiction
goal three - equip his friends with some of the vital information which will help them to help him make some good decisions.
goal four - identify some of the key fears in his personal drama. Clean the apartment, create a neutral space where the truth can be told.

Goal Five - plan my exit strategy if the **** hits the fan.

- that is to say - I don’t want to devote too much of my precious time to sorting him out - I’ve got my own life to lead -

I’ve spent the last week cleaning up his appalling appartment - I didn’t realise how bad crack addiction is - but judging from the state of his place - I’ve come to the conclusion that he really needs help.

Its quite scary actually.

You dont really sound like a friend to me, not if your motivation to help him, is just 2 get his house. you should help him no matter what, dont just let him be you fool. Crack cocaine is really ****** up. He needs his FRIENDS help. B4 ITS 2 LATE

I was in the same situation. You NEED to tell a family member(S) whether they believe you or not. It is a family disease so they may also be in denial and the addict will do all he can to lie about it. Either way, the result is DEATH so something needs to be done. Friends need to be brutal with these addicts and not worry about losing the friendship b/c in reality you are the friend, they are not. You either do nothing and risk death or do something and save his life.