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Friday, December 30, 2005

Renfro in Rehab

Posted by on December 30 at 22:02 PM

I posted an item about this last week: Brad Renfro, mid-90s teen idol, was arrested during a police sting of an open-air heroin market in LA. I posted these pics of Renfro:

403px-BradRenfro.jpg

That’s the “before” picture, i.e. Brad during his teen idol days. The next pic is Brad on the day of his big heroin bust:

21098956.jpg

Tonight the AP is reporting that Renfro is entering a rehab program—hey, not a moment too soon. And look for Renfro on the celeb remorse circuit once he’s out of rehab. The View, 20/20, maybe even Oprah. He’ll be remorseful and thank God that he got arrested, because that was when he hit bottom, got help, blah blah blah. This bust is going to be the best thing that’s happened to Renfro’s career in a decade.

But what blew my mind when I read tonight’s AP report, however, was Brad’s age. It wasn’t mentioned in the original reports about his arrest. The kid is 23 years-old—23! Look at that “after heroin” picture again. That guys is 23? Jesus, why does anyone touch heroin?


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Maybe he just looks older because of his prematurely receding hairline?

DON'T TOUCH HEROIN, KIDS!!!

Actually that was gonna be my entire post, but fucking seriously! I'm 26 and have been doing "hardcore" drugs for more than a decade. Still, anyone that came of age after Kurt Cobain doesn't even think that heroin is cool to experiment with, right? There's the friend of a friend you run into at the bar who tells you "man, it was something else, and parts of it were pretty cool, but I'll never touch that shit again".

How does someone who has only been allowed into bars for two years get into motherfucking heroin after 1997??

Heroine is a much better drug that Meth. Better high and better looking people. And how about how shitty hardcore drinkers and smokers look? Savage: People don't drugs to look better that take drugs to see better.

"People don't drugs to look better that take drugs to see better."

Hm... what's in your system, I wonder?

Hey, I've yelled and screamed about the damage that smoking does to smokers' looks. And I'm not saying "Just Say No To Drugs," I'm saying "Say Yes To Other Drugs." A little pot, the occassional psychodelic—that's cool. But heroin, meth, and cigarettes fuck your ass up.

Look at Brad. And look at that sentence you wrote. Ugly.

In a few months there will be pictures of Renfro and the widow sitting together at NA meetings.

Is there a meaning to the color and the shoulder patch of his shirt? It looks like he works days as a park ranger of some kind.

We can't be sixteen forever, Dan.

But damn, he IS a grisly 23 year-old, (for someone violently contorted against the side of a patrol car.)

I've seen longtime heroin addicts who look remarkably well preserved. I'm not advocating horse as a surrogate fountain of youth; I'm just sayin' H doesn't always lead to facial decrepitude.

Well, something did that boy in. And while we can't be 16 forever, there's no reason anyone has to be 56 three decades early.

Are you sure that's not a photo of John Cusak?

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