3. PROVIDE A DRUG-FREE OPTION

As people become more involved with drugs, they start to seek the company of others who will do the drugs with them, enable them to obtain the drugs more easily, and won't hassle them about the drugs. Once you decide that your friend has a problem, you must NEVER take the substance he or she uses when you're with him. For example, if you like to drink occasionally, you shouldn't drink with your alcoholic friend. Think up other things to do and talk your friend into doing them. Chances are, he's got plenty of friends to drink with, so you need to provide a sober option.

If you're picturing skipping through alpine meadows or youth group meetings run by Ned Flanders, that's not necessarily what we mean. Try taking your friend out for coffee or dinner (at a non-licensed restaurant, if she's a drinker) and making good conversation the focus of the evening. Or see a ballgame, play pool, or air hockey or cards, or start a Fight Club (maybe not this last one). There are plenty of things to do -- that don't suck -- that do not involve substance abuse. You should make it a point to draw up a (secret) list of things to do, and make it your goal to get your pal to do them all with you. When the two of you do something fun that doesn't involve sitting around getting messed up, your friend will remain aware that there are other ways of living.

Addicts who have strong social or family networks and jobs are more likely to be able to break their addictions than addicts who are alienated and unemployed. Make sure you help to provide the social network, and get in there before your friend loses so much that she doesn't care anymore.