Ozzy Says He Now Believes Pot Leads To Other Addictions

MTV ^ | 07.08.2003 | Robert Mancini, with reporting by Gideon Yago

[presidio9]

Ozzy Osbourne may have weathered the lowest lows that drug addiction has to offer, but the news that his son Jack was seeking treatment for substance abuse taught him a lesson that his own decades of addiction never did.

"I used to think they should legalize pot, but you know what? They should ban the lot," Osbourne told MTV News, addressing Jack's battle for the first time. "One thing leads to another. Coffee leads to Red Bull, Red Bull leads to crank.

"When I found out the full depth of him getting into OxyContin, which is like hillbilly heroin, I was shocked and stunned," Osbourne continued. "The thing that's amazing was how rapidly he went from smoking pot to doing hillbilly heroin."

Ozzy's son entered a California rehabilitation facility in April to battle what was later revealed to be an addiction to the prescription painkiller OxyContin (see "Jack Osbourne Reveals He Was Addicted To Painkiller OxyContin"). Jack also said that he was drinking and using a variety of substances — including Vicodin, Valium, Xanax, Dilaudid, Lorcet, Lortab, Percocet and marijuana — before his trip to rehab (see "Rehab Helps Jack Osbourne Get To Root Of Addiction Problems").

Jack's laundry list of controlled substances made his father painfully aware of just how readily available drugs are. "When I started doing drugs years ago, they were hard to get, but today it's everywhere," Osbourne said. "It's not just America. It's not just California. It's not just Beverly Hills. It's not just downtown New York. It's not just London. It's all over the world" (see "All About OxyContin, The Pills Known As 'Killers' ").

This relatively easy access to allegedly "controlled" substances is especially hard for Ozzy to swallow given his firsthand experience with the damage that drugs can do.

"I'm 55 years old, and I didn't get off scot-free," Osbourne explained. "I have to take medication for the rest of my life because I've done so much neurological damage to my body," Osbourne said.

We'll have much more from our interviews with Ozzy and Jack in an "MTV News Now" special report, premiering Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET/PT (Jack's complete interview will appear on MTVNews.com when the show premieres). The show will be followed the next day by a repeat of MTV News' "True Life: I'm Hooked on OxyContin" at 6:30 p.m.

[jayef]

I told you guys. Don't do it. I'm begging you, let this moron be about his business.

[presidio9]

For the record, I am pro-life, and I find your statement equating abortion and pot-smoking as one of the most inane and ludicrous ever made here.

Because you have not thought things through. None of you stoners ever do.

[MrLeRoy]

You have no understanding of the effects of drugs on their users.

Sure I do---including the deadly addictive drugs alcohol and tobacco. But self-inflicted harms are none of the government's business, while the War On Some Drugs inflicts harm on many.

[presidio9's lie:] There you go again trying to associate alcohol with pot.

There you go again lying and evading.

I have not lied once

Yes you have---see "presidio9's lie" above.

[Xenalyte]

Come to my soup kitchen with me this weekend and see if you can still look yourself in the mirror after making this ridiculous claim.

The fact that some lack any sense of personal accountability is neither my business nor the government's, nor yours for that matter.

And by the way, unless you never break any law - including the ones against speeding and not running yellow lights - you cannot huck rocks our way.

[presidio9]

Second: Legalization/regulation would make illegal drugs harder to get for minors.

This is just so goofy that I have no response. I simply repeat it for all to observe your complete lack of association with reality.

[Xenalyte]

For the record, I am pro-life, and I find your statement equating abortion and pot-smoking as one of the most inane and ludicrous ever made here.

Thank you from the bottom of my pro-life heart.

[MrLeRoy]

Whose rights are violated by drug use?

Access, not use.

Whose rights are violated by drug access?

[Xenalyte]

Well, dammit. Maybe it's time for me to put down the Diet Coke and back slowly away.

[presidio9]

And by the way, unless you never break any law - including the ones against speeding and not running yellow lights - you cannot huck rocks our way.

Notice that I have never really gotten into that debate. As long as you nutjobs cling to the rationale that "alcohol is bad so pot will be legal," I will contine to point out how idiotic that philosophy is.

[lugsoul]

goofy? No, goofy is the idea that we have to "legalize" substances, as opposed to refraining from making them illegal and expending huge amounts of resources to maintain their illegality. Pot didn't grow out of the ground as an illegal substance, my friend. It was made illegal.

Also, goofy is the idea that criminal proscription of human behavior should not be based on some kind of universal notion of what is bad and what is not. Goofy is the idea that we should ban a substance because it is bad, but shouldn't ban other substances that are bad, with no reason stated for banning one and not the other. The reason you run away from that issue is because you can't reconcile the two.

[KEVLAR]

The only thing idiotic around here is you.
Bug off.

[Xenalyte]

Abortion kills someone besides the woman who opted for the procedure. Pot kills no one, unless a giant bale of it falls on someone.

You're sounding more and more desperate. Keep it up. I direly need the laughs today.

[MrLeRoy]

At this point, it's clear that he's unreachable by logic, and all reachable lurkers know he's not even trying to make a logical argument.

[Xenalyte]

I'm about to give up. I'm getting too exasperated.

[presidio9]

I'm not concerned so much with the violation of rights caused by drug use as the destruction of lives caused by drug access.

[Xenalyte]

Notice that I have never really gotten into that debate.

Evasion of an issue does not negate the issue.

Go back to your coffee and cigarettes, and think of me when you're drinking a stiff Scotch tonight.

[presidio9]

Prolonged use of inhalants tends to decrease lung capacity...

[MrLeRoy]

I'm not concerned so much with the violation of rights caused by drug use as the destruction of lives caused by drug access.

If it's the users' lives being destroyed, that's none of government's business.

[jmc813]

In post #6, you said...

Just wait. This thread will soon be full of Libertarian Children saying that Alcohol is much worse than marijuana.

Now you're not denying that that statement is false. So it's only bad when "Libertarian children" make that claim?

[Xenalyte]

Prolonged use of inhalants tends to decrease lung capacity...

What are you talking about? I have never huffed anything in my life.

Your insults are becoming tiresome. Hose off.