An 11-year-old alcoholic.
Story from “This is Trus” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“CAN’T CATCH ME EITHER: A patrol officer in Orange Beach, Ala., saw a speeding car, but it sped up when he tried to pull it over. The ensuing chase exceeded 100 mph until the fleeing driver sideswiped another car and flipped. The cop’s patrol car camera captured what happened next: he cautiously approached with his gun drawn, unsure of what sort of desperate felon he was dealing with. Then, “you can see his reaction on the video,” Police Chief Greg Duck said. “He was expecting someone else.” What he found was a drunk 11-year-old girl at the wheel. Duck refused to specify how drunk, but the girl was beyond even the .08 percent limit for adults, he said. The unnamed sixth-grader, who was only slightly injured in the crash, was booked on multiple charges and released to her family. (Mobile Press-Register) …Which is another great excuse to party!”
Randy’s clever comment indicates that he knows there is a high probability the girl’s parents are “also” addicts. But can an 11-year-old already be an addict? Since a genetic predisposition simply needs a trigger, of course. And who else but addicted parents to help out the budding young addict?
Sharing of drugs with children is not unusual. A young co-addict is a valuable codependent, because availability to the young addict depends upon protecting the older one. My ex-fiancee smoked dope and drank with her then 11-year-old son who protected his mother well with lies (the fuller story of which is recounted in Drunks, Drugs & Debits). Many recovering addicts report they triggered their addiction during the first drinking episode, the average age of which is 13. Many were addicts by the time they were 8, including actress Drew Barrymore. If the parents don’t purposely share, they often inadvertently do–by making the drug available and being careless in protecting their stash.
By the way, the “multiple charges” included DUI, speeding, leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment. The girl, from Perdido Key, Florida, was vacationing in the area with her family and on her way to pick up her sister at a concert.
You can’t make up stories like this–no one would believe it.
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2007 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission.)