if he doesn't want to go to rehab and help himself, no matter how many rehabs he'll attend, they'll do nothing to him. you can't force anybody to go, but you can help him realize he needs to. and, from what i know, the best way to do it is to show him he reached the bottom. and 'bottom' can mean different things for different people. i'll repeat it again, just for you i don't judge individuals. no, sorry i haven't. you don't know that, or did you meet them all? besides, i wouldn't believe everything they say what about the 60's and 70's? half of the nation was desperate? i'd say most people wanted to get high for fun. you know, to me finding them all excuses is like saying Jeffrey Dahmer had bad childhood. you're responsible for what you do. if you had no idea heroin or coke are bad, well, you still had to know they were illigal, right? and if you didn't, then you seriously live on another planet. but i do acknowledge the fact that some people could've been in a desperate or irrational state of mind which led them to drugs. it's always a possibility, of course. there are so many variables in every story that you can't make assumptions knowing just the fact that this particular person is an addict. but this excuse cannot be used as a general reason why people are addicted to drugs! as i said before, patting them on the back and telling them it's not their fault is the worst thing you can do.
I'll put it this way then, every single addict or ex-addict I know, and I know a fair few, began using out of desperation. I'm not talking about the 60s and 70s, I'm talking about now. By saying that you don't judge individuals and continuing to say that the majority of addicts do it from stupidity, you ARE judging the individuals. I haven't met every addict in the world and I don't claim to, but clearly neither have you (in fact, I doubt that you've met many judging by your warped and superficial view of them). I've volunteered at a safe injection site. I take trips to the downtown east side to clean up needles and puke. I've had to call the ambulance for a friend, at 17, who overdosed on meth. Patting them on the back is not the worst thing you can do - of course they share part of the blame, but many of them are victims ignored by the system. THEY NEED HELP, and they're not fit to get it themselves. The worst thing you can do is leave them to rot and reach their "rock bottom" - you think that in a drug induced haze they'll be able to recognise the bottom? Comparing a drug addiction to a mass murderer is frankly the most ridiculous and disgusting thing I've heard in a while. Please, explain what you're basing your opinion of drug addicts off of.
and i'm talking about drug addiction as a global phenomenon. uhh .. no? majority=generalization individual=one particular person that i have in mind hardly the same. i could just as well accuse you of being biased, you know. but i won't. so please, respect my views and i will respect yours. in the end, we both are hoping for the drug problem to go away, we just blame different things for it. they certainly inflict pain, horror and death not only on themselves but also friends and family around them. is it okay for many of them to sell drugs to new people? i wasn't exactly comparing the person but the situation, though. btw, Dahmer was addicted to killing. don't get me wrong, though. i respect the fact that you volunteer to help them. not many people would have the guts to do something like that. i can also see, from the amount of emotion in your post, that you feel and care for them. i hope you'll be able to make a difference.
I don't think you can force anybody to get help unless he/she ask for help and you can't force anybody to go to the rehab, you have to find a good one that really can help you, not all rehab can help you. Right now, Gary is in big denied and he don't think he need help 'till he get help. O/T look at Robert Downey, jr. It took him a long time to figure it out that he need help. He has drugs and drinking problem, he does for a long time and he got in trouble with the laws, he went to prison, I think, I'm not sure if he does or not. Later, he finally got help, he hit rock bottom and went cold turkey when he in rehab then he got better, I don't know how long he stay in rehab. He has to fight the craving for drugs and drinking for the rest of his life and keep him not to go back to his old life and he move on. I guess he doesn't want to end like River Phoenix or other star that killed their self. Back on Topic- Gary will soon realize he does have problem down the road if he want to live.