Here are 30 famous individuals who battled substance abuse, those who didn’t know when to stop, leading to a serious, sometimes fatal, drug addiction. However, some of them have shown resilience by asking for help due to their addiction, while others have showcased how drugs can turn deadly, causing death and becoming a reason for their downfall.
Whitney Houston
The award-winning singer Whitney Houston has got to be one of the most famous addicts ever. She was loved by millions and her talent was undeniable, but she was in the limelight for her long history of substance abuse, as she got in and out of rehab several times during her career. In fact, one of the contributing factors for her death was cocaine and this was confirmed by the toxicology report.
Bobby Brown
The famous singer Bobby Brown just had to make it to our list due to his arrests owing to DUIs and drugs. However, the singer credits his drug addiction to his troubled marriage with Whitney Houston. In an interview with NBC News, Bobby with his mother by his side, candidly spoke about how at the peak of his career, he never took drugs excessively. He spoke on the various drugs he used to take, and how he didn’t mind combining them, as long as they helped him achieve the high he desired. Brown insisted that he and Houston would still be together if it wasn’t for drugs but drugs just got the best of them. Bobby Brown hasn’t used drugs for some 20 years, and he swore off alcohol around 2020, according to Yahoo Entertainment.
Amy Winehouse
Known for going back and forth with drugs, Amy Winehouse passed away due to alcohol poisoning. The 27-year old British singer had a phenomenal voice which took the world by storm but she suffered from depression and alcohol addiction in her personal life. The singer would often go days without having alcohol and suddenly have a relapse where she would binge on alcohol. A similar incident took place when Amy Winhouse was found dead on a Saturday afternoon on 23 July 2011. The paramedics found her dead in her room, fully dressed and surrounded by empty bottles of vodka lying on the floor. Later on, it was discovered that she had 416 mg of alcohol per decilitre in her bloodstream which was more than enough to slow down her respiratory system and put her in a comatose state as reported by The Guardian.
John Belushi
Another successful Hollywood star who suffered from substance abuse, specifically cocaine, which turned fatal leading to his death, is John Belushi. The comedian, actor, and musician was famous for his love for cocaine and allegedly even played a game called “cocaine chicken” at parties where he would compete with a friend by racing and snorting cocaine simultaneously to see who could snort the most cocaine, according to Ranker.
Elton John
Today, the person behind the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Elton John, was once one of the most famous people of all time, who suffered from substance abuse. In fact, during the 1980s, he was scared that he might be HIV positive, but the results turned out to be in his favor, after which he tried to stop his addiction to drugs.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.’s struggles with substance abuse have been well-known in Hollywood. His legal troubles began in 1987 and continued with multiple arrests in 1996 due to drug possession. Despite several visits to the rehab to tackle his cocaine addiction, it wasn’t until around 2002 that he started making significant progress. Since then, the actor has made a remarkable comeback, starring in numerous blockbuster films and reviving his career.
Aaron Carter
Aaron Carter is another famous person who suffered from substance abuse. Carter discussed his battles with several mental health conditions in 2019, including schizophrenia, anxiety, manic depression, and multiple personality disorder, in an interview for an episode of “The Doctors.” In addition, he acknowledged that he had a huffing addiction, calling it “something that I’ve kept secret until now.” In 2008, he was pulled over by the police for driving over the speed limit and was found with two ounces of marijuana on him. His addiction proved fatal as he died from drowning after taking a generic form of Xanax and inhaling difluoroethane, per the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.
Brian Jones
Brian Jones spiraled out of control due to his drug addiction and often caused his band, Rolling Stones, to suffer because of it. Eventually, the band members kicked him out and guitarist Mick Taylor replaced him in the band. However, Brian did not take this news well, and a month later, after being kicked out of the band, he died due to a case of drowning, in his Cotchford Farm, East Sussex home’s swimming pool. However, coroner Angus Sommerville determined that Jones’s death was due to “drowning by immersion in fresh water associated with severe liver disfunction’ caused by fatty degeneration and ingestion of alcohol and drugs” following additional discussions with Miss Lawson, Thorogood, and a pathologist’s report. The pathologist stated that there were evidence of alcohol, sleeping medications, and pep pills in his blood, according to Rolling Stones.
Ozzy Osbourne
Although sober today, Ozzy Osbourne suffered from a severe drug addiction once upon a time. In fact, his alcohol and drug abuse also resulted in him being kicked out of his band, Black Sabbath in 1979.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain has had a long history of misusing drugs, and this is also how he got to know his wife, Courtney Love, as they both shared a love for drugs and, on most occasions consumed drugs together. From his almost deadly drug overdose in Rome to the discovery of his body in Seattle a month later in 1994, Rolling Stone chronicles Cobain’s last days.
Bob Marley
The Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bob Marley was arrested once as he was caught with marijuana on him. He was a reggae legend and a cannabis ambassador, and his use of marijuana was deeply rooted in his Rastafarian beliefs, not framed as addiction. Marley grew more and more withdrawn after learning he had cancer in 1980—a fact he made an effort to conceal from his fans and the media.
Ike Turner
Ike Turner had to pay a big price for substance abuse as he passed away in 2007 due to a cocaine overdose. The musician suffered from drug addiction for a significant portion of his life and even did seventeen months of jail time in 1989 due to it.
Ray Charles
The Hit The Road Jack singer Ray Charles battled with substance abuse from a very young age and was arrested several times due to the possession of heroin. Nevertheless, he managed to avoid jail time, in return for some time at rehab. Eventually, Ray did get over his heroin addiction but later turned to alcohol.
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore is another successful actress who suffered from substance abuse, and just had to be on our list due to her addiction to drugs beginning at an extremely young age. The actress began using cocaine at the young age of 12 and was smoking marijuana even before that according to People. She finally got her life together after going to rehab a few times as a teenager and, since then, has managed to get control of her addiction and become one of the top actresses in Hollywood.
Hunter S. Thompson
The Fear and Loathing writer Hunter S. Thompson was a substance abuser who just couldn’t get enough of drugs. According to The Atlantic, he would frequently snort six lines of the best cocaine for breakfast, along with his sausage and eggs. In his book, HUNTER: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson, which was published in the 1990s, Thompson shared how he would use cocaine as much as 11 times a day. He also shared that this was not it as he would also misuse other substances along with it, such as marijuana and alcohol. On February 20, 2005, he shot himself in the head and fell in front of his typewriter.
Izzy Stradlin
The Guns N’ Roses star Izzy Stradlin was big on substance abuse and even ended up going into a coma for 96 hours while on tour because of swallowing a huge stash of it, according to North Washington. Izzy Stradlin reflects on how and why Axl left it all behind, how drugs transformed his band into zombies, and how he was once a childhood friend turned egomaniac. by the beginning of 1989. Now that Izzy and the band were finally off the road, a new reality started to set in. One major contributing factor to the isolation was the band’s decision to quit playing together. From then on, the drugs and everything else only became worse. After six more months, Izzy found himself driving on the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles and noticing snowfall because he had been up for several days doing coke, according to Classic Rock.
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono enjoyed the high she got from heroin and has accepted being addicted to it once upon a time in her life. She has also spoken in interviews about how John Lennon from The Beatles and she would often do heroin together.
Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole struggled with drugs from a very young age and was obsessed with crack, cocaine, and heroin. She wrote about it in her 2000 autobiography and also shared how she started her journey with drugs. She finally joined a rehab to recover from her addiction but was soon diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2008.
Neil Young
Neil Young has had his fair share of struggles with drugs, but today, he is one of the sober celebrities who are continuously trying to educate people about the harsh realities of drug use and creating powerful and emotional insights into its impact. He even wrote the song, The Needle and the Damage Done, which has got to be one of the most poignant tracks about heroin.
Anthony Kiedis
The Red Hot Chili Peppers member Anthony Kiedis was a huge heroin addict but stopped doing drugs after one of his bandmates passed away due to a heroin overdose in 1988.
Snoop Dogg
Known for always being high and smoking marijuana non-stop, Snoop Dogg just had to be on our list. According to Vibe, Snoop’s PBR, Renegade Piranha, asserted that the new proprietor of Death Row Records enjoys using at least a half-pound of marijuana day, or 75 to 150 joints.
Sigmund Freud
The famous psychologist Sigmund Freud is among the list of famous people who suffered from substance abuse. He believed that cocaine could help treat morphine addiction. He regularly used cocaine, and some historians even think that he developed much of his early psychology theories while using it. It’s worth mentioning that cocaine was legal during Freud’s time.
Michael Jackson
The king of pop, Michael Jackson, passed away in 2009 due to an acute propofol and benzodiazepine overdose. He was already suffering from prescription drug abuse for a long time and would use multiple aliases to get his hands on the drugs. However, it is important to note that Michael Jackson’s physician Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2009.
Keith Urban
Keith Urban is another celebrity who suffered from substance abuse, and who also made it big in Hollywood. The Australian and American singer would snort cocaine and drink alcohol almost all the time but later became sober for good. Today, the singer is an advocate for getting sober and encourages people to ask for help when they need it rather than being embarrassed about it.
Jerry Garcia
The co-founder and lead vocalist and guitarist of The Grateful Dead abused drugs and got in trouble with the police multiple times because of drug possession. He passed away on August 9, 1995, due to a heart attack at a rehab center where he was staying at the time to get his drug abuse under control.
Syd Barrett
The founder of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, would frequently use LSD and end up with some of the most popular acid casualties of all time.
Corey Haim
Corey Haim openly talked about how he abused drugs in the entirety of his life. Although Corey Haim battled drug addiction for the majority of his life, an autopsy indicated that pneumonia was actually the cause of his death.. He was a child star during the 80s who discovered drugs and could never let them go. Corey started drinking beer on the sets of Lucas, after which he shifted to cocaine over time and then even did crack. He enjoyed doing the downers and even shared in an interview with The Sun how it started with one, then two, and eventually 85 valium daily.
David Bowie
David Bowie was also a famous star who suffered from substance abuse and would often be found high on cocaine in the 1970s. He eventually realized the toll it took on his health and stopped doing drugs altogether.
Notorious B.I.G.
The Big Poppa rapper, Notorious B.I.G., was a phenomenal rapper who enjoyed cocaine and marijuana use, more than one is supposed to, and often found himself in trouble with the law during his short life due to his involvement with drugs, but mostly due to his violence related acts.
Jason Donovan
Jason Donovan started doing drugs to fit in and look cool, but things quickly spiraled out of control for him as he spent several nights alone snorting cocaine and trying to get high until he eventually gained back control of his life and stopped. However, the journey to being sober was extremely long for Donovan, who spent almost a decade doing drugs.
