Modeled on the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous (CA) is dedicated to helping people overcome their dependence on cocaine, perhaps the most seductively pleasurable drug available. According to a 1984 study, "Laboratory animals will give up both food and sex for self-administered doses of cocaine and will even starve to" death to continue receiving cocaine instead of food." Most CA members say that they started using cocaine "recreationally" but quickly lost control to the power of the drug. CA members talk about the euphoria they experienced in the first stages of cocaine use and the later spiral downward into depression, lying, hiding, and. manipulating others. One member noted, "Most of us were brought down by a medley of financial, physical, social, and spiritual problems."

Source: Harrison M. Trice, "Cocaine Anonymous," in The Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol, edited by Jerome H. Jaffe (New York: Macmillan, 1995).

The First Peak.