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live from san Francisco Channel 5s people like talking with Ann Fraser and Ross McGowan? Mm hmm, mm hmm. It's a good group this morning out here, Good morning and welcome to people are talking. You know, I guess we're all aware that every

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two or three years a new drug comes along that seems to cause problems and today this is the drug that is messing up a lot of lives all across the country. This is crack or rock cocaine. If I can even get it out of here, flips

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and drops dropped $40. That's good. Nobody run up on the stage. This this is I guess a fairly good sized rock and it would sell for. From what I understand. If you knew the dealer, you might get it for 60. But normally this would sell for

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about 100 bucks and if you used it on a regular basis, this would last about an hour or so. So it's, it's epidemic proportions. And they say here in san Francisco alone, Not counting the rest of the bay area of the 800 to 1000 arrests for

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drugs each month, 80% are for crack. We have some recovering crack users with us this morning. We have some parents with us. And we also have an inspector with narcotics with the san Francisco police. Would you please welcome them all? Mm hmm. Yeah. No. Mhm. Good

00:02:04.640 - 00:02:19.970

morning everybody welcome to people are talking. Thank you for being here, Stephanie. I'm gonna start with you. This is Stephanie Bauer, Pretty girl, Nice Smile, 19 years old. When did you start using drugs? Well when I was, I started smoking a pipe when I was nine

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when I was 18. And did that lead to crack? I went straight to it smoking smoking rocks in the cigarette. And then the month about it took it didn't take me long to start smoking a pipe. Were 19 years old now. Yeah, 19. And so you've

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been on using crack? I know you've been recovering for about what? Two months? Well I've been clean for four months but I've been in rehab for two months. And how much time before that were you using crack? About 2.5 months before that? Why? Why? Well things

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I couldn't handle problems. I had what problems? Well with my kids it was real hard. You mentioned your Children. How many? How Old Are They? one and 2. Is there a father? Yeah, well he's in jail now but he was a drug dealer and you know,

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it was really hard for me because did he turn you on to crack? No, I mean he well as for him I couldn't use if I was his lady, you know, So it was real hard, you know, being drug dealers woman and having to stay home

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take care of my kids while he was out all the time. So in other words he would deal the drugs but you had to be clean. Was he clean? Well he didn't smoke the pipe, but he did whatever he did. How did you support your drug

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habit? How did I support it? Well um I know it's hard. I am turn tricks or whatever you know it took for me to get it. Was that the only way you could do that? I mean did you ever steal? No, I had my, my treacherous

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weapon. I know your parents, my parents what my mother uses to, I used with my mother and that was like that was hard for me because you know like if I would see her really tweaking hard you know I felt I had to get it for

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her. Tweaking means tweaking these one more. It needed more. So you were working a working girl in essence to help your mother also support her drug habit. Well yeah what kind of a relationship did you have with your mom like to like two sisters so you

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were close, did she ever take off and leave or? Yeah, well that was when I Okay, I was about 13 and um she started leaving us and uh I really rebelled from it and I didn't want to listen to that and my family had to say

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because if she was out there, I wanted to be with her. So now when you say leave, is that like for a day, no months at a time years. I wouldn't see her, you wouldn't see your mother for a year and then who took care of

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you support yourself Well my grandmother did and then I started running away and just taking care of myself. So you just lived off the streets and you had two small Children. Well I had my kids, my first when I was 16 And then the baby when

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I was 18, Stephanie, what is a crack highlight? Can you describe the feeling for us? Well for me when I got real depressed and tired, you know, feeling the way I did, I would get high and I feel like I can do anything, anything. You know,

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there was nothing I couldn't do when I was high, I gave you a lot of confidence and crack unlike cocaine, which I guess we assume most of that is like snorted, this is smoked well I smoked it in the pipe in a pipe. Yeah. How did

00:06:05.540 - 00:06:22.570

you get to recovery? Well I went through a lot of trauma, I mean I went through a lot of bad things and uh you know, relationship with guys getting dogged and getting dog getting treated like like nothing and treating myself like that. That's what I was

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really doing, treating myself like nothing because I didn't care. And um I just got real tired, you know, and I and I almost lost my kids. No, they're not in my custody now they're my grandmother and my aunts and I just, it was either stay out

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there and and being that or Do something about it and get my kids back Adam Hill 18 years old we live where Menlo Park, you've been recovering how long now It's close to two months now. And how long were you using crack before then? Um About

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four or 5 months. Where did you get it in East Palo Alto or East Midland Park describe the process of you adam Hill going to get cracked. Um Well I get in my car and say, you know, I want, when I first started it was I'd

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go over there to get pot because basically can get anything you want over there. And so I get in my car and go over there and find someone that could help me find what I was looking for, How does that process work to just drive down

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the street and yeah, people will run out to your car and say, I'll show you. So it's like tour guides to the drug district, You can go on just about any corner and stop and you know, they see that you're white in an all black neighborhood

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and it's like automatically they think he's looking for drugs. How do they take you to where to get the crack? Do they get in your car and direct you that way? Either that or they'll have it on them. Um And you know, they come up to

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the car and say, you know, what do you want, what are you looking for? And you know, you tell them what you're looking for and then they give you what you, what you want or take you to where where you can go to get it. How

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much were you spending and correct? Um It would depend upon how much money I had really, I had a job over the summer and that's when I started using crack and usually about between Um sometimes it was like 25 a day or sometimes I'd have more

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money like around paycheck times and I'd get like 50, I'd go for 50 in the night And it lasts for 20, Rock would last about an hour. We heard what Stephanie said a rock or a crack high was like, what was it for you? Well just,

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it's like a head rush multiplied by about 100 times. Um I can remember taking hits before and almost passing out because you know, your vision goes blurry and is that pleasurable? Um Otherwise I wouldn't have done it. It was just a really intense high. I mean

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it's not like, did you feel like you could conquer the world with it? Did you feel you don't want to do anything? I just wanted to sit there by the pipe and do more. So it had not the same effect. So the effects are different because

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Stephanie felt like she could conquer the world felt good about herself. You just wanted to sit there and kick back. Well, I mean, I felt like I could do a lot of stuff but I didn't want to I didn't want to go anywhere. I just want

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to sit down and sit still and keep taking hits. Hit after hit after hit. We'll be back in just a moment to talk to a parent of some crack users. Mhm, mm hmm. They can triple their money down here with the rock cocaine announced in L.

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A. might run them $600 and they sell it up here for $1,500. Okay. Karen, what I wanted to know was yes, Stephanie, was she using while she was pregnant? Stephanie. Okay. Well when I was like at the end like I smoked it in the cigarettes sometimes

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but it wasn't really well at that time it wasn't really an addiction to me. It was, it wasn't like I wanted it, I wanted it, I wanted it. But I did it you know because I was sneaking I was sneaking when I was seen in the

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house for my boyfriend baby come out with any complications. It scared me for a while. But he didn't Margo Yes. I was wondering how long does the high last? Well for me it lasts me a while because I was a type like what's a while. Well

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let me see 10 minutes, 20 minutes, three minutes. Like I would take an hour break. You know I would I would take so much out of time to where I wouldn't keep picking it up. You know, I would take so much of time and I would

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do something so I wouldn't keep on you know keep on smoking. It. Is that how come it costs so much money to keep going because the highlight isn't that long, it isn't that long, it depends on how much you smoke. You know, D d Ryan smith

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three sons had some marital problems and got a divorce. Had to go back to work basically. two of your sons started using crack. That's correct. How did you find out the two started using it and then their older brother got involved in it and he felt

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I believe unfortunately couldn't be here today, but he realized how dangerous it was and his The two younger boys kept using it. Did you have no idea deedee that your sons were using drugs? I had no clue that my kids were into drugs as heavily as

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they were. They were performing at school. No, but that was that's that's a whole separate issue in our family because they never have been real involved in school and and done real well, I think probably my major problem was that I didn't want to know I

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was in denial. But you had a lot going on in your life too. And were you denying it for that reason? Your husband? If I'm correct is an alcoholic, you were going having your marital problems and so let me just kind of forget what's going on

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with the kids or how much can I cope with it. One time you went back to work, I went back to work so that you had a job and you couldn't trying to develop a career. Did you ever talk to your kids about drugs though? Did

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you ever say, I don't know what you're doing, but this is not right. You ever sit down and talk with him. When my kids were younger, I was really aware that they were going to parties on the weekends and drinking and maybe smoking a little pot.

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When I look back on what I did as a young teenager, it was the same thing I did. We called him keggers instead of parties and unfortunately I didn't realize that that was not okay. You know, I happened to have made it through okay participating in

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those kind of activities, it wasn't okay for my kids. And as they became more involved in drugs, I think they became better at hiding it. And as I became more involved in um just trying to to make it in life, I had other things going on

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in my life, as you were saying that my career problems with the boys school, just trying to make it. But being in a recovery program and going through a lot of therapy, a lot of group, one of the things that I have been able to recognize

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is my denial that I did not want to see, I did not want to have to deal with another problem to two sons of yours are with us this morning. Were you ever surprised that your mom wasn't more aware of your drug problem? Not really. I

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was just just doing the drugs and I didn't really care what she thought at the time. What did it cost you to support your drug habit? A day, A day, a week, month total about a day. About 200 302 or $300 a day. Where do you

00:14:16.360 - 00:14:38.140

get in that kind of money? Um One of my ex associate mother's bank account stealing on a bus or a bank accounts credit cards. How about you Kayla the same the same way we spent, we're out there for about 3.5 or four months and we spent

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about $6000. That's what I figured out about $6,000 in three months, 34 months. Did the drug cloud your sense of guilt in other words. Did you ever worry about what's mom gonna say or this is going to reflect bad on mom or I could go to

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jail. No, not not really because like when I was out using drugs um I didn't really have to deal with life. You know, it was just like I didn't have to deal with anything. So I just got high again and I didn't have to deal with

00:15:10.890 - 00:15:23.350

it. It was a great feeling. It wasn't at that high. Yeah it was really it it sent sent you like a lady over here said it sent you an ecstasy for about 10/15 and you were like in your own world and you. Yeah but you come

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off that 10 or 15 seconds. And what happens Derek. Um You get really jittery and stuff and you're really nervous and you like to start hunting on the carpet for little white things. You'll smoke popcorn sometimes and stuff. You smoke popcorn. Yeah. You smoke anything. That's

00:15:39.160 - 00:15:58.840

why if you're feeding is that bad and we laugh. But this is what's going on. Huh? Sergeant. Absolutely right. Sergeant rene lop. Robot from san Francisco narcotics. How serious is the problem? I mean we're hearing some stories are these unique. No, it's epidemic. In 19 years

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in law enforcement I've never seen anything takeover as completely. And as quickly as this crack craze has is crack more addictive than say cocaine or heroin crack is cocaine. The only differences in the way that it's ingested the smoking of crack as opposed to the snorting

00:16:17.840 - 00:16:34.880

of powdered cocaine causes a much more intense and immediate high. But is it more addictive then? I mean that's what we hear. It's more addictive if it's the same product if it's cocaine, why is it more addictive than the cocaine that's ingested by sniffing or because

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you're introducing the entire product into your system at one time when it goes through the lungs as opposed to having to be slowly absorbed through the mucous membranes when it snorted. I see. Show us the caps you have next to you on every street corner. In

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the projects in san Francisco, you have gangs that are dealing in cocaine and they've taken to wearing hats that are almost a uniform that denotes What part of San Francisco there from GT on this one is Geneva towers. Yeah, this one has a WP which is

00:17:07.540 - 00:17:24.080

west point, every street corner has its uniform, consequently it also has its territoriality. We're getting gang wars, shootings, drive by shootings, drug rip offs, this sort of thing. There was a shootout in the valencia Gardens last friday where close to 100 rounds were expended being fired

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into the projects through with machine guns and a ar fifteen's and Uzis. And these are 16, 17 year old kids defending their cocaine territory. Right? Yes. When he started mentioning about what's more addictive, like first he said the membrane, see a lot of people if it

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burns your nose, it's easier to smoke it. You know, you were talking about the difference between crank and crank and cook. Yes, the same way, you know, a lot of people will take access to slamming it, slamming it now. Wait, pancho, this is a whole new

00:18:02.200 - 00:18:29.740

language, I'm not sure. What do you mean slamming it, shooting it like it's crack and coke. Uh well coke crank and crack crack. Okay. There's a really very similar, a lot of people for instance, I think crack is getting really popular because people can't handle the

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nose thing or don't drink, don't you? Do you have any experience with this? Yes. And I think that's what it is. It was introduced to smoke. It makes it easier for people. That's why it's out in the open. How many people think that? Is anybody surprised

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by what's going on out there? I know that some of the younger folks aren't, but Marie, I mean you're kind of going through life every day and now you hear about all this crap going on. Well I've raised three Children and I guess I've just lived

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in an innocent my own little world and I wasn't aware. I know that they have smoked marijuana and that's all I knew about it. I didn't know what crack was. And he showed me and I don't still know how they, what do they do bang it,

00:19:12.430 - 00:19:28.420

crush it to, to smoke it sergeant. I think we have a lot of people who can answer the question here for Marie sure sounds like it, doesn't it? Yeah. How do you prepare? We don't want to give a lesson in how to do it. Exactly Marie

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and I don't think you're interested for that reason, but do you crush it up and put it in the pipe or they'll take a small rock, like the one in my fingers here and using a razor blade trim some crumbs off of it and it's placed

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into a Pyrex pipe like this. There are layers of either screen material or brillo pad in here to prevent it from falling through and then a butane lighter will be held to it, which melts the crack and they inhale the fumes and the vapors coming off

00:20:00.200 - 00:20:22.440

the melting crack Regan. Um I I'm just feeling so it's so shocking and appalling, the availability of it and I mean we all hear about the big drug dealers and the families and I mean now that it's it's really focused on our vulnerable young people. It's

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I mean a sadness that I feel, but it's also so out of hand and I mean what can happen? How do we, how are we going to deal with, who's dealing it, who's supplying it? The problem is you have 12 and 13 year old kids out

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in these projects that are clearing $600 a day in cash selling this stuff. You've got eight and nine year old kids who are acting as a lookout, who are being given $50 a day to act as a lookout. So the fact that we've raised the minimum

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wage is not impressive to them working at McDonald's doesn't make it when you can make that kind of money right wants to have an examiner route for $80 a month when you can make $6, a day selling this stuff. Yeah, I've had coke and crank sprinkled

00:21:05.180 - 00:21:18.870

on weed before and it gave me a different kind of high and once I had to hit a crack And it just made me real stupid for about 10, 15 minutes. But um I can see where it's addictive because it does give you real nifty feeling.

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So um so after to get this sniffed feeling, how are you supporting this happened? I've only done crack once and that was on charity and um that's just one of my big no nos. I don't want to do it now. How do you do crack on

00:21:34.180 - 00:21:49.050

charity? Someone says, hey, try this, you're gonna love it to get you on it. Maybe it was a resin hit off the pipe, like you script the resin that's left behind and we smoked that so it's not as potent. So it's like a secondhand hit kind

00:21:49.050 - 00:22:09.310

of like that. Yeah, yeah, let's take a commercial break and come back. I think we have a lot more questions for him. We shall return your father was to find out that my seven year old, it was off into drugs. I think I would want to

00:22:09.310 - 00:22:26.430

hurt someone and that's not the way to go about it. I know, I don't know what to do. I don't know how it can be stopped using crack before. It was the in drug. What was the high, what did it feel like for you Robin? Okay.

00:22:26.440 - 00:22:42.420

Um It was 30 seconds of heaven and then you drop straight to hell and you're steady trying to get back to the ecstasy. So you're chasing a high, you're you're doing everything you can do to get back to a heavenly temporary 32nd high. Would you do

00:22:42.430 - 00:22:57.490

anything to get the money to get cracked? No, I would not. Thank God. What did you do? Well the most ideal was maybe wrote some bad checks out of my account. What had happened to me? I had started having problems with my heart and I felt

00:22:57.490 - 00:23:14.300

like I was going to die and I stopped, you know I felt that God had given me another chance no more. You know and I haven't touched it since 1980 and most people didn't even know it existed at that time and at that time um cocaine

00:23:14.300 - 00:23:27.580

was being mixed with ether in order to test it to see how pure the cocaine was and once you mix it you could separate and see exactly how what you had there on that plate. And and you know you would know, you know whether or not

00:23:27.580 - 00:23:44.110

it was good or whether or not it was bad Adrian, you hear people dying. Did you guys fear that you would die when you hit the rock? As they say, I was always scared of dying. I remember one time I was doing was freebasing and I

00:23:44.110 - 00:23:58.850

took such a big hit, I just started to feel sick to my stomach and dizzy and I thought that, you know, this was it and I was like, oh, you know, I've overdosed this is it. But you know, it was so tempting to do it that,

00:23:58.860 - 00:24:16.490

you know, it kind of overrode the, the fear. You explain what a rock houses and then what is going on inside these rock houses, Some of the most humiliating things are going on. I've seen instances where what is the rock house, first of all rock houses

00:24:16.490 - 00:24:33.870

where you purchase crack and um during the time that they're smoking it and if you know the women, I've seen some of the women, you know do really humiliating things. I mean people that had, well people that have the, the crack in order for them to

00:24:33.870 - 00:24:48.260

get the hit, you know, they would tell them, you know, you have sex with this dog right here and I'll let you have a hit. I mean, some of the most inhumane things, but like what, what I'm sorry, what was your name again? She was saying

00:24:48.260 - 00:25:04.520

that Stephanie, Stephanie was saying that, you know, you have to do it, you know, just because you would like Ramos said you were chasing? I, but I've seen some really crazy things and once we stoop that low that tells us something that we need to back

00:25:04.520 - 00:25:22.900

away. I mean, you know, thanks Sharon Kathy, Oh my question was to Sharon and looking at the police officer with the crack with the pipe explaining how to go through the mechanism, how did that make the both of you feel? I sort of saw some heavy

00:25:22.900 - 00:25:38.760

breathing and you know sort of looking away so how do you feel and what keeps you from wanting to do it now? Well me, all I have to think about is my two kids, if I go back out there then you know there's no way I'm

00:25:38.760 - 00:25:51.040

gonna get them, you know, and and and that's the only strength that I have now, you know is that either I'm gonna get out there and get get messed up or or just live, you know, I want to live now, I'm tired of being feeling like

00:25:51.040 - 00:26:09.810

nothing, you know, for me when I looked at it, I was going, oh my God, it made me feel pretty hard, but as far as keeping from doing it, I just think about coming down because coming down off crack is worse than coming down off regular

00:26:09.810 - 00:26:22.550

cocaine 10 times is worse. I mean because you're so depressed, you can't feel any emotions you just don't want to do. You do, you just want to lay there, you don't want to do, you want to just lay there but any, any position that you get

00:26:22.550 - 00:26:34.830

in isn't comfortable, you know, so you'll be sitting there and you'll be moving around trying to get comfortable and you can't get comfortable And you can't smile and you can't feel happy and you can't you know you're just really depressed. Renee is there a big you

00:26:34.830 - 00:26:48.990

know we always when we saw in movies dramatized the fact that coming off of heroin was bouncing off the walls sick to your stomach 24 hours, bugs crawling all over. I mean horrible withdrawal is we're talking about coming down from a high but what about the

00:26:48.990 - 00:27:07.100

withdrawal from crack? Is it as bad? Well the withdrawal is rather immediate. Like this young man said uh your body doesn't have the same physiological physiological addiction that you would to heroin or an opiate. However you have a much more intense mental addiction to it. Again

00:27:07.100 - 00:27:18.100

like the lady said in the audience, you're seeking that 15 seconds of heaven and then you're in a day or two of hell trying to get back up to it. The withdrawal was pretty tough but we got a couple of messages for you and we'll be

00:27:18.100 - 00:27:36.950

back and talk more about crack. I think it's really terrible because I have kids growing up around here and we can't play at the gym or anywhere. They have to play right at the baseball diamond because the fear that they will be approached about one of

00:27:36.950 - 00:27:49.750

the drug dealers, it's like an epidemic out there with the crack business is booming for these kids out there, they're making all kinds of money on it. They're making anywhere from $750 to $1,000 a day selling that stuff. So that just shows you the type of

00:27:49.760 - 00:28:10.010

clientele they have coming through in the amount. Mm hmm. Someone's got to explain something. Because I think some of people in our audience are a little confused. What is freebasing? Is that the same as smoking crack? What is crank? I mean there are a whole bunch

00:28:10.010 - 00:28:29.190

of questions. A whole bunch of confusion. Can you straighten that out for us? I can try to crack his methamphetamine or speed. It's a stimulant. Crank is Yes. It's frequently prescribed by doctors for diet, weight control. That sort of thing. Mm hmm. Free base and crack

00:28:29.200 - 00:28:49.850

are similar but different in that free base is nearly pure cocaine. That's been reduced to a base. Nearly 100% pure. And that is more dangerous in the process of doing it. Well. It is stronger. But it's also about 10 times as expensive as crack crack is

00:28:50.640 - 00:29:07.500

cocaine. That's reduced to a base. But it's also mixed with baking soda. And that's how you end up with a small rock. Like this is it's baking soda clinging to the cocaine molecules. And when this is smoked, it's not quite as intense as free base. However,

00:29:07.500 - 00:29:27.090

it is still somewhere in their base, cocaine yvonne. I wanted to ask adam how it started how it all began. Um I started with pot basically when I was going to school um when I was about 15 and over the summer, this was last summer I

00:29:27.090 - 00:29:39.270

started to go to over to East Menlo Park or East Palo alto to buy pot by a little dime bag, $10 worth of pot. And so one day I went over there to try and get it and they said, well, we can't find it, so why

00:29:39.270 - 00:29:52.150

don't you try and get this? So we went and got $10 worth of crack. And so I tried that the first time and it didn't affect me. So, you know, I was like, yeah, so what? And then I went back again and I tried it again

00:29:52.420 - 00:30:08.000

and it's, you know, then I got to like it and then I just started doing it. Is this the hip thing to do? Or was there something missing in your life that drugs provided? Um I think it was basically something do. I got pretty bored going

00:30:08.000 - 00:30:20.460

to boarding school and stuff. So, and you were kicked out of that boarding school? If I have the story correct, your mom is in the audience. How I mean, he's a little over two months, he's been recovering. How are you reacting to this whole thing? And

00:30:20.460 - 00:30:36.730

were you aware at all that adam? Was this involved with drugs? No, I think I probably denied it a great deal. Um, but in addition to that because he was in boarding school, um, I didn't see him except for vacation time. So I really was unaware

00:30:36.730 - 00:30:51.890

of what was going on. He didn't show signs except for indifference. And um and I thought that was just part of adolescence. And adolescence is hard as far as communication between because they see how you're doing and they go, yeah, is everything fine? We were very

00:30:51.890 - 00:31:05.020

much cut off from each other as far as our communications went and, and I just thought he was in a sullen period. So I was able to deny it by giving other excuses for the things that he was doing for all the other parents out there

00:31:05.020 - 00:31:22.230

who are saying my kids selling, we're having some, what do you advise? Um I think I'm still going through the trauma of the whole experience and it it all blew up at christmas right before his christmas vacation from boarding school when he was kicked out and

00:31:22.230 - 00:31:35.730

I was at work and they called both my ex husband and I to come and get him. And um I happened to be out at the time. So my ex husband went down to pick up adam at school in Pebble Beach. And so when I got

00:31:35.730 - 00:31:50.150

the message, I did all of this guttering around to find a place where they would take him. I just, I realized that we just couldn't go any further than we had and we were able to get him into a program on the peninsula, a 45 day

00:31:50.150 - 00:32:05.690

program where he went through 10 days of evaluation and then he stood up in front of his peer group and in front of his parents and went through the whole, um, deliverance of what it was he had been involved with over the years and when he

00:32:05.690 - 00:32:19.200

had started. And yeah, I think I was just in such a state of shock that you know, I just didn't know how to respond. And quite frankly, I don't have any advice for anybody other than you just have to be a really strong person in order

00:32:19.200 - 00:32:31.280

to get through it. And I'm still going through it. In fact sitting in the audience right now, I'm learning. I thought I knew everything from the educational part of the program that I've been going through with him, but that hasn't been the case. I'm finding that

00:32:31.280 - 00:32:48.170

I'm learning quite a bit today just before we go to a break. Was there any resentment on your part adam that your parents sent you to a boarding school? Um Yeah, because well, I don't know, it's hard to say. I can't really. Was there some resentment

00:32:48.540 - 00:33:19.040

your mom says yes. Um yeah, I think so. We'll be back after this. Stay tuned. Yeah. Yeah, Mary you have a question. Yes. um I manage a bakery and about 90% of my employees are young adults, teenagers and I recently had some money missing from work

00:33:19.050 - 00:33:31.930

and I'm just curious besides those type of things. What can I look for, what can I do to help them if I suspect they are on drugs and crack whatever type of drug it is, What can I do as a friend as their manager? What can

00:33:31.930 - 00:33:48.090

I do? What should I look for deedee? What does she look for? I feel that being in a position of being their manager, it might be difficult for you to step in and actually do anything about it. I wouldn't hesitate if you have a personal relationship

00:33:48.090 - 00:33:58.950

with him. I wouldn't hesitate to discuss it on a personal level. But I would think that you might have some real legal problems if you accuse someone of using drugs on the job. But you know, one of the things that I'd like, I'd really like to

00:33:58.950 - 00:34:18.010

address on this program other than the actual usage of the drug is the fact that these kids can recover. They can get into programs, parents can be of some real support. Well, let's talk to another young man who did you start at 11 years of age?

00:34:18.340 - 00:34:35.780

Yes. I started smoking marijuana at 11 years of age and, and as time as time went by progressed, it was like powder form and then from powder form and the weak to rock form in a week. And, and like, um, what was the worst thing you

00:34:35.780 - 00:34:53.330

ever had to do to support your drug habit? The worst thing I had to do, wow. The worst thing I had to do was was play games with someone try to be slick playing games with people. I wasn't, I wasn't, you know, so much in the

00:34:53.330 - 00:35:09.760

position that I would take anything from somebody. I was more like the type of person I felt I was slick that I can, you know, I'll do the other person. Did you ever have to um do sexual favors for anybody? No, no, no sexual favors. That's

00:35:09.760 - 00:35:26.320

one thing I haven't encountered during the time I was using and like now, but, but as time, you know, as time progressed, you know, the addition, you know, the addition that it carried on and, and I found myself, you know, becoming totally unmanageable. Now you have

00:35:26.320 - 00:35:42.070

a question for adam what I wanted to actually, Alan was like and you're using time, did you feel your appearance going down extremely? And what I mean? Like did you look in the mirror at yourself and like, hey, you know, you can see yourself going down

00:35:42.070 - 00:35:59.600

the hill? Um No, not really because it came gradually. I mean it was the change. I'm sure there was a change because people have told me now that I'm clean and sober that I look better, but it wasn't really noticeable because it goes so slowly. The

00:35:59.600 - 00:36:12.400

changes that I just really couldn't notice. You didn't lose a lot of weight or it wasn't gradual with my voice within a matter of two weeks. Once they got into crack use, that's when I really had to become aware that there was something going on. You

00:36:12.400 - 00:36:28.660

physically could see physically, I could see that they lost weight. They didn't take showers, they didn't shave, Derek, you're in recovery now. Both you and her. What brought you to recovery? And your mom just said, you know, recovery works and it is working. My oldest brother

00:36:28.660 - 00:36:41.610

Greg, he knocked on us. He told my mom that we're using crack. But do you think maybe deep down you were kind of screaming for some help? Not really. I was screaming for more crack actually. Did you resent your brother looking pretty honest here? And that

00:36:41.610 - 00:36:56.850

helps in recovery I assume because you're not denying carroll is a mother over here. And she said even sometimes recovery cannot work the first time around. Right, right. It didn't work for Karen for about four months. Well, she had an association with a boyfriend that helped

00:36:57.330 - 00:37:11.650

plus she just kept going back for more and she was out of the house. What did you do as a parent? I worried a lot enabled a lot. I did a lot of chasing after her. Finally, she was arrested and so we did put her in

00:37:11.650 - 00:37:27.440

Hillcrest which is a juvenile facility and she's had four really good months. She's just doing wonderfully. But the appearance thing, she was instantly just really looked awful, ran around in rags, torn t shirts. I feel like you kind of have it under control. Now Karen finally

00:37:27.450 - 00:38:01.470

thank God if parents suspect the problem sergeant, let's find out. Maybe the first step to bringing their son or their daughter through recovery will be back in just a moment Janet you had a question? Yes. I was wondering what do you do

00:38:01.470 - 00:38:17.450

as a family member if you have someone in your family that's on it, what kind of reaching out can you do to help them? There are a lot of support groups available throughout Alameda County and Allen is one group, tough love is another group. There are

00:38:18.120 - 00:38:31.900

adult Children of alcoholics. There are a lot of different support groups that you can go to. You don't have to have a family member in treatment to participate in recovery programs. But how did you make the first step? D d I mean as a parent, what

00:38:31.910 - 00:38:45.050

do you do if you think there's a problem? Do you just call an organization or do you confront yourself? I called Thunder Road in Oakland. I had read an article in january of last year about this program that was opening up and I thought it was

00:38:45.050 - 00:38:58.170

a wonderful program for someone else's kids. And once there brother came to me, I had had seen some programs on television about crack and how addictive it was. Greg came to me and told me that they were addicted to the drug. I called the program. I

00:38:58.170 - 00:39:14.090

called the police because they had been gone from home for two days. The police picked them up and we took them to Thunder Road where they were admitted and you carol. Well we found in Amy's case who also went to Thunder Road uh program that we

00:39:14.090 - 00:39:30.620

love. They insist upon having family um participation. They view it as a family disease. And my husband and I attended, we made a commitment to attend workshops twice a week while Amy was in Um the facility. And now that she's out, we also attend twice a

00:39:30.620 - 00:39:46.830

week with other parents. And it's an incredible source of encouragement and insight and and we feel that's really one of the successes. Any. Do you love the fact that your parents have gone 100% for your recovery. Um yeah because I thought once they found out that

00:39:47.120 - 00:40:01.620

I'd be cut off. I mean I've been living a life for a year. I've been living with my boyfriend who was a drug dealer and they knew just because publicly in town it was a known fact you know of his occupation and I would consistently lie

00:40:01.620 - 00:40:14.590

to them at least 2 to 3 times a week. And I imagine the first thing you have to do is several relationships you have with that particular world to get into a recovery program or begin recovery. We have some phone numbers for you for more information.

00:40:14.590 - 00:40:34.370

The national cocaine hotline 800 cocaine is the number Walden house here in the bay Area. 4155527440. And there are a number of other recovery programs you can call. The people are talking hotline. For that information. 4788888. Thank you for telling your stories continued success to all

00:40:34.370 - 00:40:42.450

of you, and I shall return after this. Mhm.