Jonathan Mendelsohn
While hosting Bailey House’s ART HOUSE Gala in New York City this past Wednesday, iconic actress and activist Sharon Stone, 65, detailed experiences she faced in which drug addiction affected her loved ones. The event was in honor of American photographer Nan Goldin, who founded the advocacy group Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN).
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During the event, Sharon Stone discussed how the medical industry can take advantage of patients and push drugs, creating addiction. Stone said, “I modeled in New York in the late ’70s and the ’80s. I spent a lot of time at Studio 54. A lot of my friends are dead. Don’t f— with me. Do not cross the line between health and healing and abuse. My brother went to Attica [Prison] — he crossed the line. Do not cross the line with me.”
Sharon Stone Discusses the Affections of Drug Addiction
Stone revealed that doctors were adamant about administering OxyContin to one of her sons after a ski accident. Stone stated, “Every single stop along the way for the next day and a half I had to have it re-put in his chart. ‘Can you please read it back to me?’ In a day and a half that it took for him to get a rod and seven pins in his leg, I got six calls. From four nurses, from an anesthesiologist, from doctors, from people completely unrelated to my son’s situation, telling me why my son needed OxyContin and no other drug would do. No other drug!”
Stone added, “Anaphylaxis? ‘It’s not that bad! How bad is it really? He’s 17, when he will be 18, I really think he could make this decision for himself.’ Until finally, at the sixth call, I said, ‘I’m going on CNN tomorrow and if I get one more of these calls I’m going to say that your hospital is a drug cartel.’ This is not because I or Nan disagree with painkillers. We don’t. We disagree with paid drug dealers.”
Money raised from the event will be donated to help fight homelessness and AIDS in NYC. Goldin also gave some heartwrenching words at the event, saying, “I lost my whole community … At the beginning, nobody knew what this disease was. They called it the gay cancer. … I keep my people alive through my work.”
