People who are facing drug issues might need help to get off the drugs. For some people, the wake-up call comes when they are arrested for criminal charges. If you know someone in this position, you might want to do what you can to help that person out.
One thing that you can do is to let your friend know that you are there for him or her. Let them know that you care, but that you aren’t going to support their habit. This is something that is very important because you don’t want to be the person who gives him or her money to score drugs.
If your buddy does take steps to get sober, you can help with that too. Offer to be the person they can contact when they are feeling weak. This is a big responsibility, so make sure you are ready for it. There is a chance that they might contact you in the middle of the night for help to stay clean. If you don’t think that you can handle that, don’t offer to be their emergency contact.
A person who is facing criminal charges might be able to get help from the court to get off drugs through a program like Drug Court. Even if this is the case, you might still be able to be there to support your friend. In these cases, they will have a lot of conditions that they have to meet. Working to encourage them to stick to the program might be helpful.
Ultimately, you can’t force your friend to get sober. They have to want to do it. You can stand by them to let them know that someone cares, but don’t get sucked into their drug abuse.
Source: National Crime Prevention Council, “Helping a Friend With a Drug Problem,” accessed Aug. 18, 2017
