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I'm very sorry to hear that you and your family are going through this. All I can say is you are not alone.

I just dealt with a similar problem with my older brother last weekend. Some of my mother's nice rings were pawned, a check of hers was forged, and numerous other things. He's an alcoholic, but this time it was a prescription drug that he apparently wanted a lot more of and didn't care who he stole money and things from to get it. I couldn't get him to tell me where his Kimber .45 was. I suspect it was either pawned or he hid it and wasn't going to give it up. Believe me it did enter my mind that he might have been drugged up enough to pull it on me as I was booting him out the door. That's just another memory that people on drugs leave you to deal with.

I lost my only other older brother to a prescription pain killer addiction 2 years ago...and he was a successful CEO of a small tech company. I had always thought that making a ton of money was a good thing.

I understand your concern about a potential shootout with police, although there's not much you can do beyond possibly giving a heads-up to the police that cover that area of South Dallas. Hopefully someone here can give you a name and number to call.

I guess that the only thing I've learned with my older brothers is that there is not much that a family member can do to help other than to be there when HE decides to stop doing drugs. Lord knows we've tried everything. Whether your brother has burned that bridge or not, you'll have to decide, if he comes back.

My brother that is still alive told me a few years ago that he strives to act more like me because I seem to always do the right thing. I said that not to toot my own horn but to help explain that no matter what role model you have been or could have been, your brother has decided to do what he wanted to do, going against your better judgment. My brother has (again) done the same.

On a more positive note, one of the advantages of my being the youngest kid in a multi-kid family is that I get to see the consequences of my older siblings actions and that makes for, in my opinion, a lot better choices in life.