John Vlismas on drugs in the industry: Artists are spoilt not tortured
Comedian John Vlismas has reflected on the scourge of drugs in the entertainment industry, claiming that many artists justified using drugs as way to de-stress and get rid of their apparent troubles.
John told DJ Fresh on Metro FM that artists created this picture of themselves as tortured souls that need self-medication.
"We have been hardwired to think that we are working hard in media, we don't really. Going down a mine is working hard. Being a domestic and working for people who are ungrateful is very hard. We think we work hard, therefore we should play hard and we have been raised in a society where this is permissive.
"And because there is always money flying around and people like that you are around, so things are made easier. So, we give ourselves this nonsense that artists are these tortured people that have to self-medicate, which is rubbish. We are just spoilt. It is being spoilt and behaving badly," he said.
Speaking about his own battle with an addiction that nearly killed him, John said after being admitted into high care at a Johannesburg hospital he realised that he needed to make a change and booked himself into rehab.
"At Milpark Hospital there have been a few large bills settled at the cardiac high care unit where the doctor finally said to me: 'Look, we can't keeping doing this. You need to make some quick decisions here'. So, yeah it all got a little close and I am glad I managed to pull out of the nosedive," he said.
John also opened up about his addictions in an interview with Anele Mdoda late last year, telling the TV talk show host that he had always been a binge drinker but soon found the periods of binge drinking got closer together.
“I was always a binge drinker. I drank heavily for periods and then didn’t drink. Then the binges got closer together. Of course, once you introduce something like cocaine into the mix you can drink much more,” he said.