Credit: Steve KerosRed Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea opens up about his own struggle with addiction and comments on the ongoing U.S. opioid epidemic in an essay for Time magazine.
“I’ve been around substance abuse since the day I was born,” Flea writes. “I started smoking weed when I was eleven, and then proceeded to snort, shoot, pop, smoke, drop and dragon chase my way through my teens and twenties.”
The musician stopped taking drugs in 1993 at age 30, but after undergoing major surgery a few years ago after a snowboarding accident, a doctor prescribed him a two-month supply of Oxycontin.
“I was high as hell when I took those things,” Flea writes. “It not only quelled my physical pain, but all my emotions as well. I only took one a day, but I was not present for my kids, my creative spirit went into decline and I became depressed.”
Flea contrasts the stereotypical image of a drug dealer with a doctor who can prescribe opioids to children.
“When I was a kid, my doctor would give me a butterscotch candy after a checkup. Now, they’re handing out scripts,” he says. “It’s hard to beat temptation when the person supplying you has a fancy job and credentials and it’s usually bad advice not to trust them.”
Flea adds that, while there’s “obviously a time when painkillers should be prescribed,” he thinks that “medical professions should be more discerning.”
“It’s also equally obvious that part of any opioid prescription should include follow-up, monitoring and a clear solution and path to rehabilitation if anyone becomes addicted,” Flea writes.
“Addiction is a cruel disease,” he concludes. “And the medical community, together with the government, should offer help to all of those who need it.”
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