Article content

For all Rob Ford’s evident problems with alcohol, obesity and recklessly self-destructive behaviour, one of the more curious aspects of the scandal is the intense moral panic over crack, a drug he has acknowledged using perhaps only once, in a forgotten “drunken stupor.”

[np_storybar title=”Felix Vikhman: Advice for Rob Ford, from a former addict” link=”http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/08/felix-vikhman-advice-for-rob-ford-from-a-former-addict/”]

I don’t know why I finally said yes when my mother asked me again if I was on drugs. The look on her face that night is branded into my memory: stark anxious terror infused with a scorned woman’s fury.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Why has Rob Ford's use of crack sparked such an intense moral panic? Back to video

At the time, my parents were coming out of their own denial. Nothing other than drug addiction could explain what had happened to their formerly successful and well-respected son.

Just a few years earlier, I’d been building my reputation as a young journalist. I’d even once held a senior editorial position at this newspaper’s business magazine. By 28, that was all over. I had to move back in with my parents. And there was no more denying the missing $20s from my mom’s purse.