George first started “using” at age eleven. He grew up the son of bar owners in the Brooklyn. His parents taught him how to mix cocktails. Drinking in his family was normal and George now considers most of his relatives to be addicts. As a teen, he and his friend would drink to get drunk. It was the 1960’s, and they experimented with marijuana, hashish and hallucinogens. They would get in trouble, but not enough to the point somebody would address his addictions with him. He found himself a crack addict, living on the street.