Oscar winner Jared Leto admits depths of drug addiction: ‘It took me for a ride’

Jared Leto is not afraid to talk about the dark parts of his past.

The Oscar-winning actor recently opened up about his history with drug addiction with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, revealing that at one point during that period in his life, “I took it for a ride, then it took me for a ride.”

“I grew up in an environment where there were drugs around,” he began. “I knew what the smell of weed is as a very, very young kid, I mean, I remember walking by some trees . . . as a young kid, a very young kid, like maybe, I don’t know, fourth grade or something, and saying to the other kids, ‘Oh, someone’s smoking pot.'”

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Jared Leto struggled with drug addiction in his younger years. (Mike Marsland/WireImage)

He remembered the other kids responding in confusion, asking “What do you mean? What’s pot?”

Leto admitted, “I was always interested in that. I was always interested in drugs. I was always interested in an experience. I was interested in, you know, taking some risks. I think that’s probably common for people that like to experiment or explore.”

After a point, he realized that experimentation had turned to addiction, asking, “Taking drugs is one thing, but does it start taking you?”

Jared Leto says he was familiar with drugs from a young age. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for MTV)

“My experience certainly was that I took it for a ride, then it took me for a ride, for sure.”

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While he said it wasn’t easy to stop taking drugs, he did say that at one point he had “an epiphany.”

“I had a moment of clarity, that’s what they call it,” he explained. “I knew that I wanted to hopefully accomplish things in my life that I was proud of, to do something special with my life . . . there were two paths that I could take in life.”

Jared Leto says he also dabbled in drug dealing. (Erika Goldring/WireImage)

Lowe asked whether it was a “spiritual experience,” and he shied away from the phrase, calling it again “an epiphany.”

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“I took that path,” he continued. “And I’ve had very close friends that didn’t, and they’re not here anymore. Many.”

Leto also recalled the beginnings of his career, saying that while he was working on becoming an artist, he was a “professional drug user” and “not a bad dealer.”

Jared Leto now expresses himself in a number of artistic ways. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

While he didn’t reveal exactly how old he was during that part of his life, he told the newspaper The Big Issue in 2013, “I was at a crossroads in life when I was 16. I was taking a look at my opportunities and what I’d do with my life and how I’d go about it. I didn’t know I was going to be an actor. I thought I might be an artist or a painter. Or maybe a drug dealer. But I didn’t know which path I would take. It’s just fortunate that I chose one over the other.”

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“I was in trouble quite a bit with the authorities, any person who made rules or the law,” he told the outlet of his teenage years. “I dropped out of school. My adolescence was actually a very turbulent time for me . . . Probably a lot of my behavior was related to doing drugs.”

Jared Leto has called himself “straight-edge” after overcoming addiction. (Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images)

In 2016, he told Rolling Stone that he was “essentially straight-edge,” elaborating, “My experience with drugs? I did them, lots of them. A lot of them were really fun. There are just those few that tend to kick you in the a–.”

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He continued, “Some drugs are incredible, but the risk versus reward is out of line. I just saw too many examples of what not to do.”