Taste Flav Says He Was Spending As much as $2,600 a Day on Medicine for six Years Earlier than Getting Sober
Marc Stamas/Getty Taste Flav
Flavor Flav is opening up about how his drug dependancy managed his life.
After celebrating two years of sobriety in October, the Public Enemy founding member, 63, stated he “never really let people know exactly” what was happening with him on the peak of his dependancy as he appeared final week on the Off the Report with DJ Akademiks podcast.
“There was a time that I used to be spending $2,400 to $2,600 a day… for six years straight, you do the mathematics,” he stated. “That is how a lot I spent on medication.”
Through the worst intervals of his dependancy, he was spending virtually $1 million on medication a 12 months.
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He was additionally dealing and dipping into his personal provide.
“I ain’t gonna lie, I offered so much. However I used to be my finest buyer … I had some huge cash on the time too, I used to be simply doing the unsuitable issues with my cash,” Flav recalled.
Flav, born William Jonathan Drayton Jr., defined that he “maintained myself very nicely” whereas utilizing and “stored it hidden too,” however he was in the end in a position to give up abusing substances and begin his sobriety journey in 2020.
“I suppose God needed me to dwell. And he is aware of that I am a mouthpiece to the world,” he stated. “So, I really feel that God let me dwell by way of that, in order that approach, I may educate folks concerning the errors that I made. And hopefully, they will not make them afterward in life.
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“Medicine are straightforward to get on, and so they’re laborious as hell to get off of,” Flav added.
The Flavor of Love star, who wrote about his dependancy struggles in his 2011 memoir Taste Flav: The Icon The Memoir, additionally referred to as on at the moment’s hip-hop artists to do higher in terms of depicting drug use of their lyrics.
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“Again within the days, once we used to make drug data, we used to speak about promoting medication,” he reasoned. “Speaking about who can take advantage of cash off medication, who’s balling off promoting medication. It was a contest factor to all the hustlers.
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“Now at the moment’s music, we’re speaking about doing medication. So, there is a huge change throughout the music … It is giving youthful youngsters the unsuitable concept,” stated Flav.
In the event you or somebody you understand is fighting substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.