Heroin Addiction The Globe – Young and Wild
Teen idol Leif Garrett’s world came crashing down when he drove a car over the side of an 80-foot hill in a drug-fueled stupor and paralyzed his passenger for life.
The scandal and ensuing $7.1 million judgment against him sent the I Was Made for Dancing heartthrob spiraling down into the depths of heroin addiction.
“I was a junkie,” admits Garrett, 40. “Heroin became my lover, friend and life.”
But in 1999, the fallen superstar tried a revolutionary, one-step detox program at the Waismann Institute in Beverly Hills, where a bowel and stomach flush killed his desire for drugs while he slept.
“That was the end of the feeling I had for drugs,” declares a clean and sober Garrett, who’s now a member of the rock band F8.
Partridge Family start Danny Bonaduce, 41, has had a much tougher time kicking his bad habits and admits he’s hardly a rehab poster child after several visits to detox centers ended with mixed results.
In February of this year, Bonaduce, a co-host of the syndicated TV talk show The Other Half, confessed that he fell off the wagon after being sober for six months.
But he pledges to stay on the straight and narrow now, admitting, “I’m ashamed of myself.”
One success story is Mackenzie Phillips, 41, who’s endured nine stints of rehab after falling victim to drugs at age 12. But now the One Day at a Time star has become an inspiration to other ex-addicts by delivering motivational speeches at anti-booze and drug seminars where her message is “Life is good.”
Another happy ending belongs to 35-year-old Diff’rent Stokes actor Todd Bridges, who hit rock bottom, went to rehab and became a hero last year when he reduced a wheelchair-bound woman who had rolled into a lake.
And Stand By Me star Corey Feldman’s lust for heroin and cocaine landed him in jail before he went to rehab. The 31-year-old actor is now marking 10 years of sobriety, still working sporadically in Hollywood and fronting a rock band called Truth Movement.
“Being a child star is not easy and they often cope with the pressure by using drugs,” says psychologist Dr. Lois Mueller. “The good news is that kids generally respond better to drug treatment than adults, who have a lot of baggage and are more rigid.”
Feldman’s Lost Boys co-star, Corey Haim has had several brushes with death because of drugs, and he’s even tried to sell his body parts.
As a kid, Haim pocketed $300,000 a flick, but discovered cocaine in his mid-teens, and has seen his career nosedive ever since.
Last December, he tried to hawk a molar tooth on eBay The tooth hit a high of $10 before the sale was pulled because the Internet site does not allow the sale of body parts.
The 30-year-old actor’s bizarre auction came just three months after he ended up in a coma in an L.A. hospital after overdosing on drugs.
In 1999, L.A. pawnbroker, Julien Blue, revealed how Haim hocked a ring at his shop. Blue says he gave Haim $65 for the ring, then three more bucks when he returned to the shop and begged for money to buy a pizza.
“It was a sad, pathetic sight,” Blue commented. “He’s gone from being a rich and famous star to pawning his possessions just to get something to eat. It broke my heart to see him this way.”
