"Dr. Worth (East Center Recovery): 'It’s rare any more to see the pure alcoholic in treatment. Well, maybe not "rare," but it’s only 15 percent maybe of the people I see. They’ll usually be my age or older. Anyone less than 45, it’ll be polysubstance abuse 75 percent of the time. Alcohol and marijuana, alcohol, marijuana and meth. It’s kind of "mix and match," including opiods and heroin-like drugs.'"(Drugs on the Harbors: no easy solutions, Aberdeen Daily World, April 25, 1998)

"With methamphetamine and cocaine, I think the freebase cocaine and intravenous cocaine addiction rate is about 50 percent on the first exposure. All I can say is that I’m glad I never tried it, because I don’t think I’m in the good 50 percent." (Dr. Bruce Worth, East Center Recovery Drugs on the Harbors: no easy solutions, Aberdeen Daily World, April 25, 1998)

"Sue says she was 14 when she started drinking and smoking marijuana with an older brother. That eventually led to crank and cocaine. Eight years ago, heroin became her drug of choice. ‘That’s when my life went out of control,’ says Sue, who works as a housekeeper. ...Sue says drugs have cost her custody of her 12-year-old son, two homes and several jobs." (If an addict wants recovery, help is available, Aberdeen Daily World, April 25, 1998)

"Charlie says he never touched drugs until he dropped out of high school and went into the service. Back then alcohol and marijuana were as much a part of the military as camouflage gear, he says. He was still in training in the United States when he smoked his first joint and began drinking. It continued after he was shipped off to Vietnam. When pot and alcohol stopped satisfying him, he moved onto harder drugs, from stimulants to hallucinogens. ‘I used whatever was happening.’ he says." (If an addict wants recovery, help is available, Aberdeen Daily World, April 25, 1998)

"‘The biggest threat we have in this country is adolescent use of marijuana, drugs and alcohol,’ McCaffrey said. ‘Those are the gateways to compulsive behaviors in adulthood. We believe that if you can make it to age 18 without trying drugs, you will never have a drug problem.’" Washington is a Test Market for Anti-Drug Ads, The Washington Post, January 9, 1998)

"Moreover, the researchers found they could prevent either marijuana or heroin from releasing dopamine with a drug that blocked only the heroin receptors on the rats' brain cells. That suggests, says DiChiara, that marijuana interacts, directly or indirectly, with heroin receptors as well as with the ones that are specific to it, so it could well prime the brain for stronger stuff. Epidemiological studies show frequent marijuana use to be a risk factor for heroin use." (Better Not Inhale, Discover Magazine, January, 1998)