"Tough love is not generally the first step, and every single case is different and must be treated as such. Please remember this."

If you look at any documentary about addicts (or hear real doctors talking about it), it's the step families are FORCED to take because every other method just results in the addict thinking they can continue.

"Being kind and loving isn't necessarily enabling."

If I tried to be kind to my addict friends and tell them in a sweet voice that what they are doing is hurting themselves, they would tell me to fuck off. People aren't stupid. They know that being addicted to Meth, Coke, or Heroin is shitty and unhealthy.

Tough love is the kindest and most loving thing you can do for an addict. It just might save their life. If they know that the result of being an addict will mean that you might not talk to them again, they will think twice about shooting up.

These are details I did not know. I suspected it would come to that point in most cases, but perhaps not all. It was because of those "not all" cases that I wanted to give some people the benefit of the doubt, at least for the first. If it's an "all", or at least very close to it, as you're suggesting, then I understand the need and revoke those parts of my statement.