Drugs: The Three Cs

In recent weeks drugs and addiction made headlines in the local press - a change from the usual front page topics of crime, corruption and Julius Malema.  In the first story, an alcoholic was spared a jail sentence by the skin of her teeth.  In the second story, a drug mule was executed.

It is said that the inevitable consequence of addiction that is allowed to progress is jails, institutions and death.

So what about the friends and family of these two ladies?  How do they feel?  Or friends and family of other substance abusers and addicts?  Do they feel guilt, anger, shame, despair or frustration?  They can take comfort in "The 3 Cs of Addiction": I didn't cause it, I can't control it, I can't cure it.