PARTY PALS ARE LONG DEAD

A Former Addict Talks to Jason Botchford and Tells How Easy It Is to Get Hooked

THE IDEA that cocaine has made a comeback has Donald Crocock worried sick.
The former addict got hooked on cocaine in 1975, remained addicted through
the drug's heyday and is thankful to have survived while many of his party
friends are long dead.

He has been clean for 11 years, thanks to a safety net of addiction
counsellors and provincially funded rehabilitation centres. But that net
has been whittled away by funding cuts and freezes during the past 12 years.

SYSTEM CAN'T COPE

"The system is not ready right now to cope with the addicts and it badly,
badly needs funding," said Crocock. "(The profession) is not treated with
the respect and the dignity it deserves. How many of our young are we going
to lose again? Why do we have to keep going like this?"

When Crocock's wife Laurie helped convince him to go to a rehab centre in
1993, the wait was two weeks. The wait today would be anywhere from six to
10 weeks.

"Let's call it what it is, people are facing death -- that is the risk
here," Crocock said. "Cocaine is such an insidious drug; it's seductive and
it's deadly.

"It's really hard for a person to wait many weeks to access the treatment
system and that's not right."

Crocock spent the late 1970s and much of the 1980s tied up with drugs in a
motorcycle gang. At times, he said, the only person he cared about was himself.

In 1989, Crocock contemplated suicide but was able to right himself. He met
his wife when he was clean and sober, only to eventually drift into his old
routine.

"I'd tell my wife I was going out for milk and then disappear for two or
three days," Crocock said.

He went to the "gang's clubhouse" where he got so high he couldn't stomach
being around anyone else. He would spend days by himself.

HE HAS TWO KIDS

By 1993 he had two young children, who are now 11 and 13, and when his wife
threatened to leave him he knew he had no choice but to seek out help.

"I survived, I got to the other side and you know what? It's really nice
over here," Crocock said. "The people who helped me are heroic workers and
these are people who helped me save my life. They showed me the way. They
deserve to make more than $25,000 a year."

Crocock has returned to university, completed three diplomas in four years
and now works full time.

For eight years, Donald has been a volunteer at the Niagara Detention
Centre. He has also volunteered at various treatment agencies and for
community organizations, both locally and nationally.

In 2002, he was awarded the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's
Courage to Come Back Award.

'SO IMPORTANT'

"I'm really proud of it and I try to instill hope in others because I think
that is so important," he said.

Crocock said he can see cocaine addiction infects a wider spectrum of the
population, a cross section of the people who live in Toronto, and it
worries him.

"The people who use drugs are not cut and dried anymore; it used to be
fairly predictable and I just have the sense it's not the same anymore,"
Crocock said. "It has proliferated.

"It's scary, I don't know what's happening, it's really hard to nail down
what causes a return to the consumption of one particular drug," Crocock said.