Russell Brand struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for many years, reaching his lowest point at age 27 when he was addicted to heroin and other drugs. After getting treatment and becoming sober, he was inspired to make a documentary about his journey to recovery to help others struggling with addiction. The documentary includes footage of Brand using drugs as well as interviews where he discusses his past addiction and how he was able to get sober. He hopes the film will help change perceptions of addiction and get more support for treatment programs.

1. GORDON
SMART
Showbiz Editor
By
HIGHS
& LOWS1975: Russell is born in Grays,
Essex, on June 4.
1990: Makes acting debut,
playing Fat Sam in a school
production of Bugsy Malone.
1995: Given a place at the
Drama Centre London, but
expelled during his final year.
2000: Begins to enjoy success
in stand-up comedy, but
struggles with drug and
alcohol problems.
2001: Sacked from presenting
job on MTV for coming to
work dressed as Osama bin
Laden the day after World
Trade Center attacks.
2002: Spends 12 weeks being
treated for heroin addiction in
UK rehab centre.
2004: Gets big TV break
hosting Big Brother’s Big
Mouth and develops a
reputation as a ladies’ man by
bedding famous beauties
including Kate Moss.
2005: Treated for sex addiction
in a specialist US clinic.
2007: First film part, as Flash
Harry in Brit flick St Trinian’s.
2008: He lands Hollywood
roles, playing Aldous Snow in
Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Russell and Jonathan Ross
spark fury with a foul-mouthed
phone call to Fawlty Towers
actor Andrew Sachs during
Brand’s Radio 2 show.
Russell quits and
Jonathan is suspended.
2009: Russell meets US
singer Katy Perry while
hosting the MTV Video
Music Awards, and
proposes in December.
2010: He enjoys more
big-screen success,
returning to the role of
Aldous Snow in Get
Him To The Greek. Weds
Katy in lavish ceremony in
northern India in October.
2011: Files for divorce after
just 14 months of marriage.
2012: Returns to stand-up
with new TV show Brand X.
LESS than ten years ago
Russell Brand was in the
destructive grip of drug
addiction.
His life was about scoring
class A drugs at all costs.
The comedian was kicking about
with a collection of acquaintances
who were stuck in the vicious circle
of illegal substance abuse funded by
crime. Some were so badly sucked
in they had lost limbs through the
practice of their addiction.
He said: “Ten years ago, I couldn’t
get enough — cannabis, booze, speed,
acid, coke, crack, smack. I took
drugs every single day.
“I remember being told that in six
months I would end up dead, in
prison or a lunatic asylum and
thinking, ‘That sounds heavy.’ ”
But Russell is living proof that
the downward spiral can be stopped
through sheer determination
combined with good emotional and
professional support.
After Amy Winehouse died last
year Russell was inspired to make a
new hard-hitting documentary for
the BBC about his road to recovery.
Last week her ex-husband Blake
Fielder-Civil suffered multiple organ
failure and is now in a medically
induced coma after a huge drink
and drug binge — bringing an added
poignancy to the timing of our chat.
Add that to the recent story of
junkie billionaire Hans Rausing —
convicted of hoarding addict wife
Eva’s dead body — and it backs up
Brand’s belief that fame, money and
class are no antidote to the
condition of dependency.
Russell, 37, said: “It’s a subject
that’s really close to me and Amy’s
death can serve as a catalyst or
serve as a symbol that people don’t
have to die.
Smack
“Her death wasn’t inevitable —
there was something that could have
been done. I know that from my
own experience. There are millions
like her who have the opportunity to
get clean. I wanted to make that
film and work with Comic Relief
so people could get access to the
information on how to do it.
“I’ve met people both in addiction
and recovery from all sorts of back-
grounds and it’s no discriminator.
“It’s more apparent where there is
less money because the criminal part
of it is more evident, but the
Rausing example goes to show that
the desperation drugs induce in
people who suffer from from
addiction goes across the board.”
In the documentary, Russell Brand:
From Addiction To Recovery, there
is harrowing footage of him smoking
heroin in his younger years.
The comic is almost unrecognisable
to the man sitting before me in the
salubrious surroundings of London’s
Savoy Hotel. The footage shows him
hunched on the floor of a grotty
flat, barefoot and lost in the warm
comfort of another hit of smack.
Now we are sat in the decadent
five-star venue which used to play
host to one of the most notorious
British hellraising actors of all-time
— Richard Harris. He was a man
who would have admired Russell’s
dramatic and hedonistic rise to fame
during his own booze-fuelled hey-
day, but who died an alcoholic.
Both are effervescent, lively charac-
ters with an eye for the ladies.
But Russell is a very different man
now, and his determination to tackle
the thorny issue of addiction — an
illness, not a crime in his book — is
stoking the fire in his belly.
He explained: “It is a film about
taking drugs and getting off drugs.
Nowadays I don’t drink or take
drugs.”
His beloved mum, Barbara Brand,
opens up about her son’s dark years
in the BBC3 film, to be shown on
Thursday at 9pm. He asks what her
recollections of the time were and
Barbara, 65, said: “You were
helpless. You looked so ill, skinny,
not particularly clean, had no pride
in your appearance or how you
lived. It’s heartbreaking as a mum
when you have brought an innocent
beautiful little child into the world
and to see that happen.”
But Russell has turned his life
around spectacularly — with help
from some strong characters.
His agent John Noel forced him to
visit Focus 12 residential rehab in
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
That was the start. Normally this is
where a journalist would write, ‘He
hasn’t looked back’. But Russell looks
back every day to remind himself
how worthwhile the effort has been.
He said: “I got clean at the age of
27, the age Amy was when she died.
“Amy’s death was a paradoxical
unsurprising shock. I felt like I could
have done something to help — to
give her the chance I had. That’s
why I made this film — to have a
sympathetic look at alcoholism and
addiction, a condition that the World
Health Organisation regards as a
disorder.
“Drugs and alcoholism are much
misunderstood in our country — by
users, non-users and the Government.
“We need to start regarding
addiction in all its forms as a health
issue as opposed to a criminal and
judicial issue.
“It don’t make no difference to me
— the money, the fame, the power,
the sex, the women — any of it. I’d
rather be a drug addict.
“If I didn’t have my programme I
would be a drug addict today.
“I loved Amy on the basis that I
thought she was really, really
brilliant. I recognised that this person
has got it, she has got this thing. She
is not happy, she is on edge.
“She drank this glass of champagne
and threw it over her shoulder once.
“I said, ‘What are you doing that
for?’ She said. ‘I was doing it to
impress you.’ I said, ‘Well . . . don’t’,
then she started flicking lit cigarettes
around the room.
Sewing
“That’s when I got the sense of the
ticking clock and spoke to other peo-
ple, ‘Hey, we need to do something.’ ”
When he gets excited Russell
speaks with the rhythm of a sewing
machine at full steam, with a
staccato beat to his softly spoken and
measured statements.
He continued: “When she died, it
was this feeling of, ‘Agh, I knew that
was going to happen.’ And I had this
flickering sense that I should have
done something about that.
“I feel a bit guilty that there was
nothing I did. Whatever anyone could
have done for Amy, now one thing is
for sure, no one can do anything —
she’s dead.
“There are loads of people who are
going to die if they don’t stop taking
drugs and drinking. It ain’t necessary
— it’s difficult for the individual, it’s
difficult for the family and it’s detri-
mental to society and it’s unnecessary
because there is a solution.
“For me it’s vital that more addicts
get the relevant information, into
recovery, change their lives and
become drug-free. Amy’s death is
tragic, but if we use it as an
opportunity to review the way we
treat addicts and addiction and alco-
holism in this country then it hasn’t
been in vain. So her death is sad,
but it might not feel so pointless.”
The documentary brings some
really interesting information to light.
More than 80 per cent of the
British prison population are addicts
or have some sort of substance abuse
issue — but only one in ten gets any
treatment other than methadone to
break their habit.
A scheme called RAPt — Rehabilita-
tion of Addicted Prisoners — at a
prison in north London, is now
proven to work.
If there was more Government fund-
ing available, it could be spread out
across the country. Russell visits
another initiative in Brighton where
ex-addicts support each other to
re-engage with the community. The
local police now estimate that for
every one pound spent on rehab
programmes, the area benefits from
£3 less lost to crime. It’s a dividend
that makes rehab worthwhile.
Russell said: “I am into this long
term. If I can quote from Rocky IV,
which I find myself doing more often
than I would like, if I can change,
then you can change and the whole
damn world can change.”
Lethal
One thing Russell does not back is
the Department of Health’s metha-
done programme, which he believes
is as worthwhile as “re-arranging the
furniture on the Titanic. It doesn’t
work. Drug addicts are addicted to
drugs, so don’t give them more paid
for by the country. Even now if I
take tin foil out for a legit reason, I
still get that feeling of what it’s like
to chase heroin and what the smell is
like when it burns. It has to be
complete abstinence.”
Alcohol is as important to the docu-
mentary, and something he had as
many problems with in his twenties.
“It was alcohol that killed Amy in
the end. Chip Somers, the head of
Focus 12, really believes that, in the
next five years, we will see a lot
more trouble coming from alcohol.
“It is sanctioned and accepted but
it’s easy to forget it is lethal.
“It destroys lives and has a terrible
cultural impact. But alcohol is only
really dangerous to alcoholics as
drugs are dangerous to drug addicts.
“It’s about having joined-up infor-
mation available to everyone about
the dangers of illegal and legal drugs.
“If you know someone who has a
problem with alcohol and drugs,
direct them towards abstinence-based
recovery because it works. There is a
solution.
“There are plans with Comic Relief
to launch a concert with some big
names involved, so we have a lot
planned to keep this going.”
As we leave the hotel, Hollywood
star Arnold Schwarzenegger walks
through the lobby with a stunning
woman on his arm. He extends a nod
of recognition to Russell.
Arnie was not in Rocky IV,
but acknowledgement from The
Terminator in the context of our chat,
seems like an appropriate pay-off
to our evening.
g.smart@the-sun.co.uk
A TENANT moved into a
new flat — and found a
PYTHON lurking inside.
The startled resident
discovered the 4ft snake
when he opened a
kitchen drawer.
It is believed to have
belonged to a previous
tenant of the flat, who
has now moved back to
Saudi Arabia.
The RSPCA in Swan-
sea is hoping to re-home
the royal python. Insp
Neill Manley said: “The
tenant was shocked, but
it was not dangerous.”
This hiss
myplace
QUOTESOF
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QUOTESOF
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THEW
EXCLUSIVE:CONTROVERSIALCOMIC ONTV SHOWABOUTBEATING HIS ADDICTION
A FISHERMAN who
smashed his boat into
Britain’s longest pier has
been ordered to pay
£13,000 in costs and fines.
John Smith’s 35ft ves-
sel hit the mile-
and-a-half long pleasure
pier at Southend, Essex.
Repairs ran to £113,000
and the structure was
closed for a month —
costing the council
£400,000 in lost trade.
Smith, 52, admitted fail-
ing to keep a proper
lookout when he faced
Southend magistrates.
£13kpier
crashrap
“IF Alex Ferguson wants
to give me a call, he
knows where I am.”
– USAIN BOLT bids
for a trial at
Manchester United.
“She looks like a ****ing
fairground stripper.”
– SIR ELTON JOHN
takes a pop at
Madonna.
“Our focus now is giving
her a beautiful funeral
and loving our three
children with all our
hearts.”
– GARY BARLOW’s
statement about baby
daughter Poppy being
delivered stillborn.
“I heard the number 31
and thought, ‘Alistair’s
got a penalty, what an
idiot’. But then I looked
down at my arm and real-
ised I was 31.”
– British triathlon
bronze medallist
JONNY BROWNLEE on
the moment he realised
he had a 15-second
time penalty, rather
than his brother
Alistair.
“Am I disappointed to
see Nasa doing the
experiments we hoped
to do? About as disap-
pointed as an Olympic
athlete who gets to
London 2012 after years
of training only to pull up
with a hamstring injury at
the first hurdle,”
– PROFESSOR COLIN
PILLINGER, whose
Beagle 2 was lost on
Mars.
“Remember Amy loved
him. Let’s pray for his
recovery.”
– MITCH WINEHOUSE
hopes former
son-in-law Blake
Fielder-Civil will wake
from a coma.
ADDICTED . . .ADDICTED . . .
Hans Rausing andHans Rausing and
late wife Eva, right,late wife Eva, right,
and Russell withand Russell with
tragic Amy, far righttragic Amy, far right
SHOCKING . . .
Russ in scenes
from hard-hitting
documentary
38 Sunday, August 12, 2012 Sunday, August 12, 2012 39