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.

[RockyMtnMan]

Your right, I just threw away all my logic you win. After you spend another 100 billion or so in tax dollars for the same crappy results we'll all be better off. Point being, how is that any different than now?

Let's see:

#1 More companies will drug screen their employees so they won't hire them in the first place or they'll can them before they become a problem.

#2 Less turf wars will occure because drugs will no longer be more valuable than gold.

#3 Drug providers will face liability suites. This money can go to the hosptitals for the crimes all the violent potheads commit.

To infer I would use a currently illicit drug if it became legal is reaching at best. I in no way support the use of drugs, I just feal the WOD is a complete waste of time and tax payer money.

[presidio9]

Two is all I have time for, but I can take these social misfits on with one hand tied behind my back. Which accounts for the typos you see...

[Xenalyte]

Not smoking at all - and barely drinking, thank you very freakin' much Dr. Atkins.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Ignoring, ignoring, ignoring, oh what the hey.

You're such a clever little guy. Keep it up.

[lugsoul]

"Two is all I have time for, but I can take these social misfits on with one hand tied behind my back."

Worth posting again.

[Xenalyte]

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.

Many thanks, Mr. R - and there's your answer, P9, all pasted so you don't have to go to all the work of hitting PgUp twice to read it. Lord knows why you wanted the stats.

[presidio9]

Logic: When drugs are cheaper and more easily available, more kids will do drugs. How's that?

[lugsoul]

Sure. And pot was never legal.

[A CA Guy]

I had no problem with the forfeitures except in the rare cases where they were taken from landlords who didn't know what was going on.
There was a drug connection in the forfeiture. It could have been the car where ounces of pot was found or the home where drugs were being made. That I had no problem with.

[Xenalyte]

Almost all the violent offenders in California jails have drunk beer too. Shall we draw a correlation there?

Don't make the mistake of confusing sequence with causation. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - after this, therefore because of this - is a common logical fallacy.

[eyespysomething]

hmmm...

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm

A study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University confirms what many criminologists have long known: alcohol is associated with more violent crime than any illegal drug, including crack, cocaine, and heroin. Twenty-one percent of violent felons in state prisons committed their crimes while under the influence of alcohol alone. Only 3% were high on crack or powder cocaine alone and only 1% were using heroin alone.

Source: Califano, Joseph, Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population, Forward by Joseph Califano, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (1998).

---

Federal statistics show that a large percentage of criminal offenders were under the influence of alcohol alone when they committed their crimes (36.3%, or a total of 1,919,251 offenders). Federal research also shows for more than 40% of convicted murderers being held in either jail or State prison, alcohol use was a factor in the crime.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., Alcohol and Crime: An Analysis of National Data on the Prevalence of Alcohol Involvement in Crime (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, April 1998), pp. 20-21.

[presidio9]

Riiight... that information is not available. Gee you crankwhores are wacky.

[Xenalyte]

I'm not the one who made it unavailable. What are you getting at?

[lugsoul]

It was his way of trying to prove his statement that lurkers only read headlines. You see, it is all a scheme, to keep us posting. If the headline pops up frequently enough in the forum, people will see the statement that Ozzy says pot leads to other drugs. Then, despite anything else they may know about the subject or be able to find out, they will accede to the undeniable truth of this statement, and P9 and Axel would have changed minds simply by causing the headline to flash across a few computer screens.

Those meddling kids.

[presidio9]

Almost all the violent offenders in California jails have drunk beer too. Shall we draw a correlation there?

It's fun to watch it come all the way around again, isn't it. They talk about "logic," and their sacred mantra is "alcohol is bad, legalize pot!" How goofy is that?

[AxelPaulsenJr]

It was his way of trying to prove his statement that lurkers only read headlines

Oh, they read more than headlines. They are reading a story that says that a famous big time user of drugs, says that pot leads to more addictive drugs.

[ActionNewsBill]

#1 The cost to the employer due to theft, mistakes, damage, lawsuits, accidents and violence in the workplace.

THE DRUG - TEST SCAM

ILLICIT DRUG USERS COST LESS & WORK HARDER

The journal SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN [4] cited a study of workers at two utility companies: Utah Power & Light and Georgia Power Company. The workers who tested positive for illicit drugs were found to (a) cost employers $215 less per worker per year in health insurance, and (b) have a higher rate of promotion. Work- ers testing positive for cannabis only had an absentee rate 30% lower than average. The logical conclusion: illicit users were less costly to employers while at the same time being more productive and reliable. More for less! -- now there's a deal.

The JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE [5] published a study that found "no difference between drug-positive and drug-negative em- ployees."However, the study's author ob- served that during the study, 11 of the non- users were fired while none of the users were fired. Ironically, once the study end- ed, all of the users could have been fired for using the "wrong" drugs, regardless of their productivity and professionalism.

Once agian the drug warriors have no facts to back up their claims.

[presidio9]

Leroy's habitual retreat: When he has no comback, he tells you to "prove it." I'm not interested in proving it. Don't believe me if you like. We can keep bumping this thread to Christmas for all I care. It would please me actually.

[commonerX]

With up to 1300 posts, it shows how divisive this topic is. It's not just one or two hippies talking about it anymore. With much of the civilized world recognizing that keeping pot illegal doesn't work, it is only a matter time before America will come to the same conclusion. People like Presidio9 will have to just accept it.

[lugsoul]

And that coffee leads to crank.