Oh, I'm not doubting this at all, but why someone so successful would find the first dose is what interests me the most. Then again, this all goes back to the old saying that no one ever wants to get addicted.
I am not sure why it surprises you that successful people would encounter crack. Cocaine has long been the illicit drug of choice among the rich and powerful. Crack obviously has a less glamorous reputation but if you know where to get cocaine, chances are you will be able to get/make crack as well.
Crack in my opinion, is the ultimate rush. There's just nothing that compares to the feeling of a monster crack hit, it makes IV heroin seem like child's play. But it's also pretty worthless as a drug in my opinion. After the rush and 2 minute high, the feeling is awful. You don't just fiend because the high is so good, but actually more because the come down is so bad. You feel so empty, depressed, on edge, over stimulated, and just awful and that feeling lasts for hours even after just taking a few hits. During that time, all you can think about is more crack. I can't tell you how many times I have bought a 20 bag of crack, smoked it, then immediately called every crack dealer I knew in an insane rush to get more. Dealers, being the assholes they are often would not show up until 3 hours later, by which time by come down would finally be coming to an end and I wouldn't want any more crack but since my dealer was arriving I would buy more anyway, smoke it and then the whole cycle would repeat. What a stupid drug, you blow through tons of cash just so you can spend a few minutes high and the rest of your time fiending. The only time crack can be fun is if you have tons of dope to come down with and you don't mind wasting thee or four days worth of heroin for one crack come down. Actually, when I was smoking crack is how my heroin habit got the worst it ever got because where I was normally satisfied with a half gram a day, if I was smoking crack I would need to do 2 or 3 grams of dope per day. Smoking crack without dope to come down with would be unthinkable for me. I dont know how crack addicts who dont use heroin deal with their come downs, I guess some of them use alcohol or benzos.
ahh, i'm sure there are LOADS of people who've been addicted to crack for 30 years or more. it takes a lot to kill a person.
Yeah, definitely. In fact cocaine related deaths are usually more sudden than say the slow deterioration you see with alcoholism if I'm not mistaken, like a cocaine user has a heart attack or stroke unexpectedly. So out of 100 crack addicts, a few might die from the aforementioned causes at various times over the 30 year period but the majority will most likely survive.
And then also you have to keep in mind how expensive crack is and how quickly you can go through it, so unlike alcoholics who might be able to afford to drink heavily daily or opiate addicts who need opiates in their system constantly, very few if any crack addicts are smoking crack constantly for a 30 year period. Smoking crack all day in a tolerant individual could easily cost $300 to $500 a day, who can afford that? So most crack addicts have lots and lots of healthy breaks from crack and that allows them to maintain their health over decades and decades of crack smoking.