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.

[RipSawyer]

I have been a major coffee drinker for forty years and I don't even know what Red Bull is.

[mvpel]

"Innocent people dying," you say? What, the drugs just crawl out of the bottle and pounce down the throats of hapless passerby?

[mvpel]

The proper role of a just government is to protect the freedom and individual rights of its citizens. This is the founding principle of our nation, reflected in the Declaration of Independence. The principle of natural individual rights is based on the underlying principle of self-ownership.

Just because you think that something someone else decides to eat, inject, smoke, or otherwise ingest into their own body, over which they have ownership rights, is baa-aa-aad does not mean that it is a legitimate function of our federal or state governments to prevent that person from eating, injecting, smoking, or otherwise ingesting it by the threat or application of government force.

I don't care one whit about the evils of alcohol or the alleged wonders of hemp, or the fact that it costs money to punish criminal behaviour. I care about the abuse of government force.

[mvpel]

Right... So then, when it becomes legal to sell pot to pushers, but not to the kids who buy it from them, then all the pushers are just going to change careers and stop selling to kids. OK. I get it now. Quick: Legalize drugs.

How many convenience stores do you know of that will sell a pack of smokes to someone who walks in and says, "Hi, I'm 15 years old, I'd like a pack of Marlboro Reds, please"?

[presidio9]

This is not a relevant analogy. When most drug sales are legalized, those who make money selling drugs illegally will be forced to expand their target market.

[presidio9]

I am more concerned about potential drug users than the currently addicted.

[presidio9]

Yes, but legalized drug sales just make it that much easier.

[presidio9]

Brings us back to the alcohol arguement. If you are so concerned about the destruction of lives, you need to petition the government to bring back prohibition. Only if you want to be consistant that is.

Keep coming "back to the alcohol arguement" all you like. It never helps the pot arguement. If you are concerned with human life you should spend your energy trying to get booze outlawed, not pot legalized. No matter how many times you idiots try, the logic on this will never change.

[presidio9]

I can't think of anything more pathetic than making one's principal political issue the legalization of a mind-destroying drug.

[MrLeRoy]

I am concerned about the destruction of lives [...] If you are concerned with human life you should spend your energy trying to get booze outlawed

So are you spending your energy trying to get booze outlawed---or are you a hypocrite?

[mvpel]

Ozzie is the poster child of "Just say no."

Except that some here seem to want it to be "Just say no, or else."

[MrLeRoy]

When most drug sales are legalized, those who make money selling drugs illegally will be forced to expand their target market out of business as most moonshiners were when Prohibition ended.

There, now that's correct.

[Xenalyte]

My principal political issue is tightening the borders, although banning abortion is a very close second, and thank you very much for playing. Now run off, but put those scissors down first.

[mvpel]

I don't seem to recall Al Capone and his bootlegger bretheren expanding their target market upon the end of Prohibition - instead I recall Miller Brewery and Jack Daniels getting back into the business that they were forced out of for a time, without any gunfights between the Miller and Budweiser distributors.

Do you recall something different?

[presidio9]

My principal political issue is tightening the borders,

Which would explain why you are so gung-ho about getting drugs legalized. If they close the borders your habit will cost a fortune.

The pro-drug logic is EXACTLY the same as the pro-abortion logic. And just as invalid. But, hey, if you want to live a life of philosophical incosistencies, hey, at leat you are pro-life, right? I would trade legalized drugs for banning abortion in a second.

[bird4four4]

I never said that I was concerned about the destruction of lives, you said that. I belive if a person wants to eat rare beef covered with butter and cheese every day of their life they may. If they want to ride a motor cycle with no helmet they may. If they want to drink a liter ever night they may. You are the one who wnats to protect everyone from harmful decision with no reguard for violating individual rights. So what have you done lately to stem the destruction of lives, other than posting to WOD threads on FR?

[presidio9]

Do you recall something different?

Yes I do. $1,000 worth of pot fits neatly in my pocket Einstein.

[mvpel]

I can't think of anything more pathetic than making one's principal political issue the legalization of a mind-destroying drug.

I can't think of anything more pathetic than a pointed lack of concern about the abuse and destruction of individual rights and the Constitution.

[mvpel]

Upon legalization, you'd need a suitcase to carry a thousand bucks worth of pot. Hello?

[presidio9]

I belive if a person wants to eat rare beef covered with butter and cheese every day of their life they may. If they want to ride a motor cycle with no helmet they may

Right, but people who use drugs DO effect the lives of others. These activities do not.

So what have you done lately to stem the destruction of lives, other than posting to WOD threads on FR?

Actually, I work with drug addicts in the South Bronx, so I guess your sarcasm misfired.