Rocker Billy Idol claims smoking crack helped him kick his heroin addiction
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Billy Idol has been open with his drug use over the years and recently admitted he used crack to help wean himself off another dangerous drug.
Over the decades, rock stars have very much become synonymous with dangerous drug use... There is a reason people still scream the phrase, 'sex, drugs and rock and roll'.
With that said, many of the drugs rockers have been known to partake in are hardly the safest and British rock star Billy Idol is no stranger to them.
Speaking on Bill Maher’s podcast, the 70 year-old detailed his life, career and intimate relationship with many different kinds of drugs before getting sober.
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Maher also spoke about his own experience with drugs and discussed with Idol about how their experiences with drugs may differ a fair bit.
Reflecting on his journey with drugs and being sober now, Idol remarked that it was a scary idea that people start taking drugs later on in their life, especially after being able to avoid them for so long.
Half jokingly, he remarked that he was glad he did drugs when he was younger due to having the youthful ‘energy’ to be a junkie.
Speaking about getting off heroin, Idol noted that he had a ‘cocaine phase’ and experimented with other drugs.
He said: “Well, when you are trying to get off heroin, what do you go to.
“You go to something else. I started smoking crack to get off heroin. It worked.
“This is probably the worst advert but it worked, I got off it. This was years ago. I glad I got away from it.”
He and Maher then began laughing about the poor drug advice from Idol.
It almost goes without saying that this isn’t exactly the doctor-prescribed method of getting off drugs, heroin or otherwise.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse ‘treatment enables people to counteract addiction's disruptive effects on their brain and behavior and regain control of their lives.’
Regarding getting effective treatment, the institution said: “Research shows that when treating addictions to opioids (prescription pain relievers or drugs like heroin or fentanyl), medication should be the first line of treatment, usually combined with some form of behavioral therapy or counseling. Medications are also available to help treat addiction to alcohol and nicotine.
“Additionally, medications are used to help people detoxify from drugs, although detoxification is not the same as treatment and is not sufficient to help a person recover. Detoxification alone without subsequent treatment generally leads to resumption of drug use.
“Treatment should be tailored to address each patient's drug use patterns and drug-related medical, mental, and social problems.”
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (888) 830-7624 24 hours, seven days a week, or contact them through their website.