The TV personality also explained why he thanks 'God for the drugs and alcohol.'
RuPaul is opening up about his past drug use. The 63-year-old TV personality appeared on the latest episode of Spotify's Call Her Daddy podcast, and told host Alex Cooper that he was a drug user for 30 years.
"I started using when I was 10 years old. I started smoking weed when I was 10 years old," he said. "It was a different time... It was a different thing. It's not like people think of it today."
His first experience with hard drugs came when he was 13 in the form of a pill called a red devil. While RuPaul said he doesn't remember the effects of that particular drug, he noted, "I wasn't afraid of drugs."
RuPaul said that in all the years he was a drug user, he "never shot up." However, in his 20s, RuPaul "dropped acid every weekend."
"Every weekend. Four hits of acid every weekend," he said, before describing the experience of the drug. "It was the proof I had that this world is an illusion. That everything you think you know about solid objects or what people are is a lie. I had that suspicion before I dropped acid, so when I dropped acid, it was like, 'Yes, this is it exactly!''
"The people who freak out... those are the people that it never occurred to them that this is an illusion," he added. "... It lifts the veil of the illusion, the fantasy that we collectively agree to in our lives."
Looking back on his drug use, RuPaul said, "I used for 30 years. The first 20 were a blast. Had a great time. It was those last 10 that were pure hell." Even so, RuPaul noted that he thanks "God for the drugs and alcohol, because it saved my life."
"It gave me a layaway plan, a deferment plan until I was strong enough to deal with what was going on," he said. "Thankfully, I found a 12-step program that really, really, really helped me so much that I am in love with. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that... The success I have today, I wouldn't have that if it weren't for this 12-step program... because it gives you all the processing tools to deal with all of the trauma of what life is."
Watch the video below for more on RuPaul.
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