"I just think what we see in young Hollywood is reflective in what we see happening in young America -- the pandemic of drug addiction," says Dr. Drew Pinsky, who appears in VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew." "Where we're losing ground is pharmaceuticals drug addiction."
According to a 2006 survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, while illegal drug use remains steady, pharmaceutical drug abuse is going up among young adults. Pinsky reels off some popular culprits: Valium, Ambien, Vicodin, OxyContin, Ritalin.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdoses kill more people than guns, second only after car accidents. In the most recent data, accidental poisoning deaths (primarily from prescription drugs) rose 62.5% from 1999 to 2004. Indeed, the New York medical examiner declared Ledger's death an accident, caused by the "abuse of prescription medications."
Pinsky sees a higher incidence of drug use among celebrities because Hollywood is a magnet for the troubled: "People who come from traumatic backgrounds gravitate toward the solution of becoming a celebrity."
And the environment doesn't help. "A lot of people who get into trouble with drugs are also people who feel emptiness in their day-to-day lives. They seek drama," says Southern California psychotherapist and addiction specialist Jim Conway. "For actors who do features, they have this huge circus environment for a few weeks. Then it's over and they're empty."
It's notoriously hard to control an addicted celebrity and sometimes the only reliable checks seem to be the insurance companies and the police. The insurance companies can refuse to insure substance abusers. A representative for Fireman's Fund Insurance, which covers most studio films, says about 10% of productions have actors with these issues.
Once an actor has a brush with the law, it can become much harder to get insured. In the recently published "Conversations With Woody Allen," the director bemoans how he'd wanted to cast Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder in "Melinda and Melinda" but couldn't get them covered. Downey had spent a stint in jail on drug charges; when authorities busted Ryder for shoplifting in 2001, they found eight different painkillers in her purse. "We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before and thought she was perfect for this."
