As a mandatory reporter, I have a somewhat different take on that. Official notice of stuff like that is never pleasant for anybody, but most of the time it’s for the best.

Just kidding.

I think you saved the only person you could save – the child.

Well done. Your friend needed an intervention too.

If she comes back and you’re friends again – great. If not, just know that sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t make you popular but it’s still the right thing.

Like you, I too have little to no patience for this kind of thing. Here in Ottawa, they actually had a program in which they gave crack addicts free crack pipes. See, the idea was twofold: prevent the spread of communicable diseases like HIV, and to get them coming into “authorities” who would attempt to get them “the help they deserved”. What happened, naturally, was that the number of crack addicts increased. They dumped the program a few months ago (to the typical hand wringing by the numb-nuts on the left). Frankly. to me, HIV is one of nature’s ways to cull crack addicts from the population. It’s a self-correcting situation, as far as I am concerned.

There are alot more people deserving of our help, compassion, and money than drug addicts.

As for your (former) friend… let me tell you – after knowing a number of people who have tried interventions… they don’t work if the person who has the problem doesn’t want to change! Addicts are very crafty – they’ll go along with something until they can finally get back to their pet addiction when no one is looking.

Interventions are VERY painful for everyone involved. You would have ended up being the whipping boy because you aren’t related – thus an easy target for both of them. So, you absolutely did the right thing by staying out of it.

The people I know who have tried interventions say they would never do it again – ever. I think the people it works for, are those lucky enough to catch the addict at the right time – when they are ready for treatment.

It’s very very sad. *sigh*

Meth, unfortunately, is a major part of my day job. It destroys families, jobs, lives, and communities, and if you allow someone using meth to be a part of your life, they will suck you into it and drag you down with them. I have seen this happen so many times, so often, to people in my caseload, people in my community, friends, and even family, that I’ve lost count. There is no hope for a meth addict until and unless they choose to help themselves. None.

You can’t help your friend; from your own narrative of your weekend, it sounds to me like she doesn’t want your help a bit, she wants you to validate her own weltanschaung, her own little make-believe world in which a guy that uses meth, steals from his family, and probably beats on her in the bargain isn’t that bad a guy.

You’re doing exactly the right thing by keeping yourself and your family away from this person. She obviously still has a lot of difficulty in leaving this chapter of her life behind – if you allow her to, I assure you she’ll drag you into it as well and make your life a living hell. I don’t blame you a bit for cutting her off.

I’d have done the same thing, and have. It hurts, but it’s the only choice that preserves the things that are important.

My ex-wife ran in similar circles. I’m glad I’m not near that anymore.

12 years ago, my cousin’s boyfriend broke her arm in a fight. I (law student that I was at the time) wanted to call the INS and get his illegal alien butt deported back to South Africa. “Don’t get involved” said my husband. “It was a fair fight” said my mother, who lives in the same town (while I’m 1200 miles away). Well, he hung around for another year or so and finally went home. Turns out (to my enabling family’s surprise), they both had horrific herion addictions. He died in a car wreck in South Africa not long after returning there; my cousin is just now free from addiction, weighs almost 100 pounds again, and is thinking about a career as an RMT.

What if I’d gotten him deported? Would his wealthy parents, upon his shocking return home, seen what was really going on and clapped him in rehab? If so, he might be alive now. Maybe, maybe not.

Would my stupid family have had to face up to my cousin’s pathetic state a lot earlier than they finally did? Would she have gotten her life back at 27 instead of 37? I don’t know.

In general I believe in letting people make their own mistakes in life. However, when it’s a matter of drugs, alcohol or physical abuse, stick your nose right in and be proud of yourself!