“No. This has to do with drugs."My jaw fell open and I almost lost my toothbrush. "You're on drugs?"She pressed her mouth together. "No. You are.""I'm on drugs?" I asked, stunned. I had no idea.”

“My daughter, Carly, has been in and out of drug treatment facilities since she was thirteen. Every time she goes away, I have a routine: I go through her room and search for drugs she may have left behind. We have a laugh these days because Carly says, “So you were lookingfor drugs I might have left behind? I’m a drug addict, Mother. We don’t leave drugs behind, especially if we’re going into treatment. We do all the drugs. We don’t save drugs back for later. If I have drugs, I do them. All of them. If I had my way, we would stop for more drugs on the way to rehab, and I would do them in the parking lot of the treatment center.”

“I say 'no' to drugs. Whenever someone asks me for some of my drugs I say, 'no.”

“I don't do drugs. I am drugs.”

“If you talk to little kids about drugs, they tell you that drugs make you feel weird and act crazy and hang around with strange people. Getting sober and running long distances has been deeply bizarre, weirder than any drug or combination of drugs I’ve tried. I do things now that my friends find crazier than doing drugs I’ve found on the floor or sleeping in the street.”

“He was my drug, and I had no desire to kick the habit.”