Drug Addict Always A Drug Addict

Give a cocaine-addicted mouse the choice between food, sex or blow, and the
cute little creature doesn't think twice about what it wants most. Eating
and procreating become non-options.

You read that Ken Caminiti has been busted for smoking crack, and you're
both shocked and disillusioned. You wonder how a guy who once had
everything -- money, celebrity and a beautiful, supportive family -- could
have nothing upstairs.

Except Cammy's problem isn't stupidity. He's no more a master of his
cravings than that poor mouse. He's a drug addict. He will always be a drug
addict. And accepting this can be his salvation, whereas continuing to deny
it will finish him off, completely ruining his life and perhaps even ending it.

There's another drug addict coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers who
understands what I'm saying here, who, in fact, tutored me on the subject.
If John Lucas knew Caminiti, he would not be surprised to hear that the
former National League Most Valuable Player had been busted.

Although Luke has been clean and sober for years, not a day goes by that he
doesn't realize how, with a single misstep, he could slip back into the
awful haze, a place that led to his waking up one morning on a dirty
sidewalk near downtown Houston wearing a urine-soaked suit and wondering
why his shoes were missing.

Fun stuff, coke.

DALE ROBERTSON

Houston Chronicle