First rehab at 16 — cocaine
By 16, Nikki was using cocaine and crack, running into New York City from New Jersey for vials of crack, before her cousin intervened and she attended her first rehab.
Snapshot · The Hidden Third
She Was the Crystal Meth Queen of Waikiki. Then She Became a PTA Mom in New Jersey.
Explore episode
Jun 10, 2026
Where this was said
Teenage Addiction: From Pot to Cocaine to Crack Before High School Was Over
At 12:47 · chapter starts 11:40
The escalation was fast. Middle school drinking gave way to psychedelics and then, by 16, to cocaine and crack — vials of which Nikki would buy by running into New York City from Teaneck. The drugs did exactly what trauma survivors often need them to do: they took her out of the pain. It was her cousin Matt — himself a recovered addict turned counselor — who finally saw what was happening and intervened. Nikki went to rehab, then a halfway house in Miami, and genuinely tried to get it together. She was proud of being sober. But as she reflects now, she never touched the pain underneath — and that meant the sobriety was always temporary, a structure built on sand. With a friend's invitation to Hawaii dangling in front of her, a fresh start felt possible. She was wrong, but she couldn't have known that yet.
Cocaine, Crack, and Running Into New York City at 16
By 16, Nikki was running into New York City from suburban New Jersey for vials of crack. Drugs were the only thing that took her out of her pain. Rehab at 16 got her sober — but never touched what was underneath.
First Night in Hawaii: The Relapse That Changed Everything
Nikki arrived in Hawaii sober, enrolled at the University of Hawaii, and relapsed the first night. She and her friend showed up to the first day of classes — and used that as an excuse to party. School lasted days.
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