How to deal with a crack head

[TaraJo]

 Its a deadly spiral, that I GTFO in time. Sometimes I still dream of using again after 15 years. Ain't gonna happen. I would rather die.

Yeah, that's why I kinda feel sorry for her and want her to get help.  I understand a lot of how addiction works and I know how even when you know it's tearing you up, you're still chasing that high.  I'm glad you're able to get to the point where you can say "I know I want this, but I also know it's destroying me so I can't do it."  Thing is, I doubt she's going to reach that point any time soon, or that she'll kill herself before she does.  I don't like seeing anyone destroy themselves, even if it's a crackwhore who destroyed a good chunk of my apartment and stole from me.  

Regardless, I gotta protect myself first and as much as I want her to be helped, I can't sacrifice my own well being to make it happen.  I have another friend who is more familiar with drug culture who told me this is kinda what junkies do: they look for someone who is naive or who doesn't know street drugs that well, and then they take advantage of them.  I suspect that happened with Violet (not to mention she took full advantage of some of Violet's other issues) and it started out that way with Lee and I, but it didn't take us long to see something was wrong, even if we didn't know exactly what it was.