I have been impressed by former addicts that have then gone on to help others, in fact I think that this is the best salvation for a lot of people caught in the addiction 'disease'. I have a former colleague trying to kill herself on crack and I hope our discussion one day gets round to her being clean and wanting to stay clean by helping people with their own rehabilitation. I can't think of any other gainful employment that she has the self-confidence or interest to do.

In the UK we have the NHS and the only way to get into rehab on the NHS is if you are a single mum or are homeless. Otherwise you pay for some private facility. We also don't have the prescription opiates that American's take for breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea and dinner so the problem is not a full on crisis here.

From the anecdata I have I believe that coming from a broken home, not knowing whom your father was and childhood trauma is a large part of it. Drugs are 'always there for you' and work predictably, therefore a relationship with a drug is kind of preferable to maintaining real relationships, with a partner, with friends, colleagues or family. I believe that addicts that go through rehab to then work with the addicted, vulnerable members of society stand a much better chance of living a worthwhile life, even if their 'family' becomes the intake of addicts at the place where they work that 'family' is pretty good compared to the empty and pointless life that is addiction.