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.

[presidio9]

Drug users logic: When drugs are legal, less kids will use drugs.

[Xenalyte]

Stop it - you're killing me.

If you must repeat the rubbish post after post, at least get your terms right. "Fewer" is the word you want.

[Xenalyte]

Which is why all the Libertarians I know are strict Constitutionalists. Yep - we're liberals.

[A CA Guy]

I provided evidence and he still had excuses and a huge case of denial anyway!

Some have to have those drugs no matter what. That is why there are those orange jump suits.

[ActionNewsBill]

So you'd prefer to make additional laws to treat the symptoms of drug use that do hurt others, e.g. lack of ambition, cheating your family out of necessities for yet another high, neglecting your family because of that ever increasing hunger for drugs?

How are these crimes?

Throw someone in jail for "lack of ambition?"

Where do you guys come up with this? You could just as easily insert the word "gambling" in place of "drugs", and your statement would make more sense.

[lugsoul]

Fewer? Presidio doesn't like big words.

[headsonpikes]

"Now, what we have here is a failure to communicate." - from 'Cool Hand Luke'.

[presidio9]

Tell me where the stats on hits to individual threads are kept or else I will stick to common sense, oh great debater. Most people just read the headlines to most newspaper stories ya know?
Leroy does this all the time. When he has nothing to say it's always "show me the proof." Prove me wrong I say. Or don't. I care not. Thousands of people read the article and not much else because a handful of drug users didn't know when to cut their losses. That's OK by me.

[MrLeRoy]

Provide evidence that proves me wrong.

Sorry, I'm not doing your homework for you---in the arena of reasoned debate, when YOU make a claim the burden is on YOU to provide evidence for it. (I have not claimed you were wrong, so I have no homework to do.)

Better yet, show me how many new people have jumped into this thread since we started.

That they aren't posting doesn't prove they haven't read past the article.

I am confident in my position, and you know it to be true as well.

Mind-reading? Keep your day job.

[presidio9]

What he said!


bump

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Time for another gratuitous babe post.

[ActionNewsBill]

People ware filling your little head with stories. Contrary to Hollywood legend, when alcohol was illegal there was far less use of it.

Please provide evidence for your claim.

[A CA Guy]

The border is fairly porous still. Even though the amount of drugs being confiscated is making the suppliers give it to the Mexicans which is pissing off their government at us for stopping all the drug flow that we have to our country.

[lugsoul]

"in the arena of reasoned debate"

It should be clear to you by now that this is not where you are.

[A CA Guy]

Woo-hoo! At least a 1000 drug busts since the start of this thread.

[Xenalyte]

Tell me where the stats on hits to individual threads are kept or else I will stick to common sense, oh great debater.

Why you'd want those, I have no idea. You'd have to ask the men who run the site, whom I have kindly pinged for you.

Mr. and Mr. Robinson, do we have "stats on hits to individual threads"?

[lugsoul]

C'mon, liar. You can admit you were wrong, but otherwise you are just a liar.

[presidio9]

I live in the real world. I am not a teacher, and I don't perform at Renaissance fairs. Where the problem of drugs really hits home, semantical points are irrelevant. But thanks again for the English lesson Princess. It is my experience that people who fixate on spelling in grammar here can not come up with logical points to support their positions. Those who can't teach.

[ActionNewsBill]

"One thing leads to another. Coffee leads to Red Bull, Red Bull leads to crank".

That Red Bull comment makes perfect sense to me, but then again, -I'm not on drugs!

Well then, we should ban caffeine and Red Bull.

[presidio9]

What's next? Liar, liar pantsonfire? You attributed a quote to me. I never said it. what more do you need?