celebrities on drugs and good movies about drugs?

Question

I need to do a health project. And I need to give and example of a celebrity that was or now abusing drugs; in addition, I need help for finding a good movie that involves drug abuse.

Answer 1

Oh, wow. Who to choose for celebrities. Here are some of them:
Robert Downey Jr - Was arrested in '96 for driving drunk and being in possession of heroin and cocaine. Arrested again in 2000 for possession of cocaine and Valium and being under the influence of a controlled substance. Arrested again in 2001 for being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Gia Carangi - Was a fashion model in the late '70s and early '80s. She was heavily addicted to heroin. She tried to quit many times, but she kept going back to it. She went to Atlantic City and prostituted herself and was raped on several occasions. She came down with pneumonia and was diagnosed with AIDS which caused her death at the age of 26.

Sid Vicious - Bassist for the Sex Pistols. Dated groupie Nancy Spungen who was a heroin addicted which led to Sid's addiction to heroin. They had a rocky relationship and contributed to the Sex Pistols breaking up. Sid and Nancy were locked in their own world of drug addiction. He came close to death once from a heroin OD and was hospitalized for a little while. One morning Sid woke up from a drugged stupor and found Nancy dead on the bathroom floor in the hotel they were staying in. She bled to death from a stab wound in her abdomen. Sid was arrested and charged with murdering her although he didn't remember doing it. After being bailed out he was at a party and obtained heroin from his mom and was found dead the next morning from a large overdose. It's believed that he killed himself because he was unable to live without Nancy.

There are a lot more really.

As for movies... try these:

Requim For A Dream: It's a really haunting movie. It shows what drugs can do and how it destroys these 4 lives. It has no happy ending and is very dark so it leaves a lasting impression on you.

Trainspotting: It's a good movie. It's about heroin use and is interesting and actually shows how heroin really is. It's a comedic movie, but it has some seriousness to it.

Traffic: It has multiple different plots, all of which are pretty different, yet all deal with drugs. One of the plots deals with a newly appointed Drug Czar (Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy) who finds out that his daughter is a drug addict. Another is about a wife who has to struggle to save her husbands drug business when he is arrested. The third is about two DEA agents who are trying to protect a witness with inside knowledge of that husbands drug business. And the last deals with a corrupt, yet dedicated cop who struggles with his conscience when he learns that his new boss may not be the anti-drug official he made himself out to be.

All three of those are good movies.

I hope I helped.

Answer 2

See:

Blow - Johnny Depp
Scarface - Al Pacino
The Drug Years - outstanding 4-part documentary playing on VH1 and the Sundance Channel
Up In Smoke - Cheech n Chong
Grass - A documentary movie
Weed - another documentary movie

These are the best examples I've seen thus far that report the facts of drug use and addiction. Though some of these do glamourize drug use and make light of it, you'll find a lot of non-biased material.

Celebrities that have overdosed and died from alcohol/drug abuse:

John Belushi
Elvis Presley
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Jim Morrison
River Phoenix
Kurt Cobain ( suicide resulted from heroin use )
Mitch Hedberg - ( stand up comedian )
Marilyn Monroe - questionable whether overdose or suicide
Judy Garland

Answer 3

Robert Downey Jr.
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Keith Richards
Ray Charles
Johny Cash
Greg Allman
Eric Clapton
Jim Morrison

Movies: Ray; Walk the Line; The Rose; Less than Zero; Blow; Scarface; The Doors

Answer 4

Well, it is probably harder to come up with a celebrity that doesn't abuse drugs , but the first one that comes to mind is Robert Downey Jr. He also did a movie about drug abuse called Less Than Zero, where his character ultimately died from an overdose...but a really great movie about drug abuse is Requiem for a Dream...check them out and good luck!

Answer 5

River Phoenix over dosed on Heroine years ago...A good drug movie was Blow...it showed how the character Johnny Depp portrayed was not only addicted but I think died or something or other...haven't watched it in a while....check it out though...good film...
Also Walk The Line, the story of Johnny Cash was excellent. He was addicted to pain killers and had a very difficult time getting help. And it's not just a story, it's real. He was quite the drug addict.

Answer 6

Trainspotting is a really good film about heroin... the scene where he sinks into the ground is exactly what heroin feels like.

Pulp fiction is hilarious from an addicts prospective.... the scene where the gun goes off accidentally is one of the funniest movie scenes of all time. It also shows a drug overdose that's pretty accurate but in real life she would have died.

If you want to see a really bad (as in awful) movie check out Double Team (1997) with Denis Rodman and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Both of them were high on cocaine during whole filming of the movie.

Answer 7

Stacey Gramher ie Frasier Crane Was into drugs and did rehab
Nick Noltie was really into drugs
Ozzie is still into drugs or maybe they just have him.....sorry I digress.
There is one coming on Lifetime this weekend that is about a drunk driver and what happens when the teenagers mother meets him and the verdict in the courtroom....yes, alcohol is a drug, a very dangerous one. I can't remember the title of the movie however. Sorry.
Have fun.

Answer 8

Wow I can't believe nobody said Half Baked or Dazed and Confused...just in case you wanted to see some comedy about people doing drugs!

I would also include the movie Why do fools fall in love the life story of Frankie Lymon.

Also Ray shows Ray Charles fighting addiction as well.

Answer 9

Celebrities on drugs: Robert Downey Jr., Courtney Love

Movies: Trainspotting, Blow, Traffic

Answer 10

Get any kind of biography on Robert Downey, Jr. Best example of why you shouldn't do drugs ever. Or you could try River Phoenix. Drugs killed him. Also the movie Blow with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz is all about drugs.

Answer 11

The best movie I think on drug abuse was/is The Basketball Diaries with Leo Dicaprio it was great. Celebrities on drugs?
Kate Moss and her ex Pete Doherty and Sean Penn