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]

He doesn't have time to learn anything, just spit out sound bites.

Whatever it takes to keep bump-bump-bumping away...

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I need a spell check on post #1265. Seriesously.

[A CA Guy]

The great thing is that the cost is mostly if not all paid for by taking the stuff of the criminals and selling it.

[ActionNewsBill]

"Treason", by the pro-drug addiction crowd trying to increase the size of the drug culture and thereby attempting to take down the American lifestyle from within.

Provide evidence for your claim, and while you're at it, please let us all know which FReepers are main-line heroin addicts.

[Xenalyte]

By order of the FR PTB, I must overlook "seriesly" and "hugh." It pains me to do so, but whatcha gonna do? (If someone misspells "moose," though, I'm all over it.)

[presidio9]

Only because of your repetitive and pointless posts.

Good one. You guys wrote the book on repetitive and pointless posts. Turnabout is fair play.

[lugsoul]

That's coming from the "talk to the hand" guy?

Or was it the "Dungeons and Dragons" guy?

Wait - same guy!

Your clever repartee is so awe-inspiring. Or is repartee too big a word for you?

[commonerX]

Here is where you will throw away your logic to deny the following along with all the other pro-addiction crowd.

You say, OK, just let them kill themselves then.

#1 The cost to the employer due to theft, mistakes, damage, lawsuits, accidents and violence in the workplace.
#2 The fallout to all family around them to violence, criminality to support the habit, theft, emotional costs.
#3 Societal costs in Emergency Rooms, medical care to their victims, hospitalization of addicts and so on.

ALCOHOL are a lose lose.


Oh but of course you'll say the legallity of alcohol and the illegality of pot aren't a hypocracy of the law.

[A CA Guy]

As long as you don't use a lot, the possession can't be much and in most places you will avoid the orange jumpsuit and will just have a ticket if caught.
Between the booze and the pot, I hope the braincells survive undamaged.

http://www.jhunewsletter.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/04/11/3e95e7d8a6ea7

[presidio9]

As much as I appreciate his bumps, I am ignoring him. I'd advise you to do the same.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Wow how many threads you on at present. Just saw your name of a thread relating to philly?

[ActionNewsBill]

It is not a lie, of course, but very straight-forward logic that drug users have a vested interest in ignoring.

You wouldn't know logic if it bit you in the butt.

[John Robinson]

stats on hits to individual threads Kinda, sorta, not really. Our stats program does collect information on the distinct URLs served. However, it doesn't account for paging through a thread (so if you clicked 5 pages on a thread the thread will be 'hit' 5 times) leading to inaccurate counts. And, I don't make the distinct URL information public, anyway.

[presidio9]

Not only are you ignorant about marijuana, but you are also a big supporter of prison rape for pot users.

How do you figure?

[eyespysomething]

The great thing is that the cost is mostly if not all paid for by taking the stuff of the criminals and selling it.

Forfeiture
1. According to a 1998 article published in the University of Chicago Law Review, the ability of law enforcement agencies to financially benefit from forfeited assets, and the provision of large block grants from Congress to fight the drug trade "have distorted governmental policy making and law enforcement." The authors believe that "the law enforcement agenda that targets assets rather than crime, the 80 percent of seizures that are unaccompanied by any criminal prosecution, the plea bargains that favor drug kingpins and penalize the 'mules' without assets to trade, the reverse stings that target drug buyers rather than drug sellers, the overkill in agencies involved in even minor arrests, the massive shift in resources towards federal jurisdiction over local law enforcement - is largely the unplanned by-product of this economic incentive structure."
Source: Blumenson, E. & and Nilsen, E., "Policing for Profit: The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda," University of Chicago Law Review, 65: 35-114 (1998, Winter).

2. On April 25, 2000, HR 1658, the Civil Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000, was signed by President Clinton and became Public Law 106-185. The Act significantly reformed the Federal civil forfeiture law, including: safeguarding an innocent owner's interest in property, and placing the burden of proof on the Government to establish by a preponderance of evidence that the property is subject to forfeiture, among others.
Source: Text of H.R. 1658 (enrolled and sent to President) and Congressional Research Service bill summary, Library of Congress THOMAS Federal Legislative Information Service, on the web at http://thomas.loc.gov/ and the Government Printing Office website at http://www.gpo.gov/

3. Federal forfeitures totaled approximately $730 million in 1994.
Source: Heilbroner, D., "The Law Goes on a Treasure Hunt," The New York Times, (1994, December 11), Section 6, p. 70, (quoting the 1992 testimony of Cary H. Copeland, then director of the Justice Department's executive-office asset forfeiture unit).

4. During a 10-month national survey, it was discovered that 80% of people who had property forfeited were never charged with a crime.
Source: Schneider, A. & Flaherty, M.P., "Presumed Guilty: The Law's Victims in the War on Drugs," The Pittsburgh Press, (1991, August 11).

Make sure you read #4.

Wait until they make fast food illegal, along with smoking at home.

[presidio9]

Oh well. TS princess. Not that it matters one bit.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Talking to slugo reminds me of the old saying we kids used to say in grade school. "Everytime he opens his mouth, he substracts from the sum total of human knowledge."

LOL

[lugsoul]

"I am ignoring him"

That's okay. There are plenty of folks here to refute your lies.

[lugsoul]

What was that, last year?

[A CA Guy]

Almost all the violent offenders in Californian jails are marijuana users as well. Many have killed, so I guess that should qualify that issue for you quite nicely.