Stevie Nicks understands the emotional, physical, and financial costs of cocaine abuse. The singer and ex-band member of Fleetwood Mac recently discussed her cocaine addiction in an episode of Oprah’s Master Class on OWN. In the interview, she explains how cocaine contributed to her affair with Mick Fleetwood, the physical toll the drug took on her body, and the financial cost of the drug. Nicks warns people during the interview of the costs of cocaine, including the cost of long term rehabs. She notes rehab is an expense you cannot avoid — Nicks firmly believes cocaine would have killed her without rehab. Financial Consequences Nicks began using cocaine after joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975. By 1977 she was abusing cocaine on a regular basis. Frequent cocaine binges hit her pocketbook hard. She notes a two-week supply of cocaine could have paid her rent for six months. Caught up in her addiction, however, drug prices meant nothing to her. Cocaine and Dangerous Sexual Activity Nicks believes cocaine has a direct influence on her brief, damaging affair with Mick Fleetwood. The two were the last left at a party in 1977. Both were drunk, and Nicks remembers using cocaine and marijuana that night. As Nicks puts it “it’s not hard to figure out what happened — and what happened wasn’t a good thing.” She recalls feeling sick about the affair, and the effect it had on the band and Fleetwood’s family. Nose Holes and Redemption Oddly, it was a plastic surgeon who changed Nicks’ life. Cocaine is a vasoconstrictor, and snorting the drug cuts off blood vessels to the nose. Regular cocaine abuse causes tissue death in the septum, the midline dividing the nostrils. Nicks developed a hole in her nose due to cocaine abuse, and she visited a plastic surgeon in 1986. The surgeon warned the next hit could be fatal, and that the hole in her nose could wind up killing her. His words stirred something in Nicks, and she sought help from addiction clinics. Her cocaine abuse now part of her past, Stevie Nicks admits she can’t stand to look at old pictures of herself. She notes everyone told her how beautiful she looked during the 1970s. She doesn’t see beauty however. She sees a woman on a near constant high, who desperately needed help. Fortunately for Nicks and the music world, she found that help. (Photo via)
