FINDING & HELPING A GIRL WITH A DRUG PROBLEM

My case of the week involved finding and helping a 24 year-old girl with a drug problem.

It all started when I spoke with a medical professional here in Orange County, who told me he had received a disturbing call from one of his daughter’s friends, Rachel.

Rachel, who lives in Los Angeles, California told the father that she had recently made plans to meet up with his daughter in San Francisco for a vacation. When they met up, the daughter appeared to be high and not making much sense – talking and behaving erratically.

So upon her return, Rachel was so worried about his daughter, she called him to let him know all was not well.

The father had been out of touch with the daughter for a while. He believed her to be living in San Francisco, California but when we performed a search for her, we actually found out she had moved to Denver, Colorado.

One of our private investigators flew to Denver, found the girl, and talked with her for over three hours. It turns out that in addition to heavy marijuana use, the girl had developed an addiction to Adderall, which is essentially an amphetamine. She was “up” one minute and “down” the next. It wasn’t an easy thing, but eventually she agreed to take a flight into Orange County and meet with me. Huge kudos to my investigator whose interview and interrogation skills were paramount in convincing her to return and meet with me. It was now my turn to get her into rehab.

I met her at the Orange County Airport and then we proceeded to a local restaurant. I told her that I didn’t want nor could I force her to do anything. I wanted her to go into rehab on her own initiative. She was very resistant and in denial about having a problem. I told her that Rachel said she was hallucinating and acting odd during her time in San Francisco. That was key in getting her to take the first step in admitting her drug dependency.

When I was able to get her to admit to the Adderall, I played an important card. I told her that I had spent a good part of my adult life as an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. She was told that Adderall is highly addictive and was having a serious effect on her central nervous system. Combined with the marihuana, she was on a physical and emotional roller coaster.

She finally broke down when I told her she had a rough minimum thirty days ahead of her in rehab to get well.

Having done hundreds of these cases and through the trial and error process, we have developed a small number of rehab facilities throughout the United States that we recommend to our clients and subjects.  Trust me on this, they are few and far between. Many factors go into what facility I select for the subjects. Age, gender and the drugs of choice are just a few. She entered the facility shortly after our four-hour visit. Based on her attitude and the professionalism of the personnel at the facility we selected, her chances of becoming and staying clean and sober are very high.

Next week:
A lucrative businessman started a San Francisco marijuana dispensary. He called us when his new business partner became greedy and threatening.