Jamie Lee Curtis: Id be dead if fentanyl were easily available when I was an addict

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By Nicki Gostin

July 28, 2023 | 1:16pm

Jamie Lee Curtis doesnt think shed be around today if potent drugs like fentanyl were prevalent before she became sober.

I was an opiate addict, and I liked to get opiate buzz, the Halloween star told Joe Scarborough on MSNBCs Morning Joe Friday.

And if fentanyl was available, as easily available, as it is today on the street, Id be dead.

Curtis, who has been clean for over two decades, considers herself incredibly lucky that she did not end up in jail years ago.

My worst day was almost invisible to anyone else, she shared. I never was arrested. I didnt make terrible decisions high or under the influence that then for the rest of my life I regret.

There are women in prison whose lives have been shattered by drugs and alcohol not because they were violent felons, not because they were horrible people, but because they were addicts. And I am incredibly lucky that that wasnt my path. I was headed there.

The Oscar-winning actress, 64, also reflected on losing her half-brother Nicholas Curtis to heroin in 1994 when he was 23.

He was clean and sober, and he went out and used one time and died from an overdose, she said.

And he is one of millions and millions of people whose lives have been extinguished because of addiction.

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Jamie has long been open about her sobriety.

In 2021, she posted a photo of her younger self smiling while holding an alcoholic drink.

A LONG time ago In a galaxy far, far away I was a young STAR at WAR with herself, she wrote at the time. I didnt know it then. I chased everything. I kept it hidden. I was a sick as my secrets.

With Gods grace and the support of MANY people who could relate to all the feelings and a couple of sober angelsIve been able to stay sober, one day at a time, for 22 years.

I was a high bottom, pun kind of intended, so the rare photo of me proudly drinking in a photo op is very useful to help me remember. To all those struggling and those who are on the pathMY HAND IN YOURS, she concluded the emotional post.

The Everything Everywhere All at Once star has also spoken candidly about her painkiller dependency, telling Variety in 2019 that a friend once saw her wash down five Vicodin pills with wine.

The jig was up, she remembered thinking. Now I knew someone knew. I had been nursing a secret Vicodin addiction for a very long time over 10 years.

A couple of months later, she attended a recovery meeting and has been sober ever since.