Russell Brand Documentary: Actor Smokes Heroin In Shocking Scene From 'From Addiction To Recovery'

Russell Brand's Documentary Exposes His Past Drug Addiction
FILE - This June 30, 2012 file photo originally released by the David Lynch Foundation shows Russell Brand at David Lynch Foundation: A Night of Comedy honoring George Shapiro in Beverly Hills, Calif. Brand must perform 20 hours of community service and pay a $500 court fee to resolve a misdemeanor charge stemming from a confrontation with a photographer in New Orleans. Brand did not appear in Municipal Court Thursday morning, but his attorney, Robert Glass, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to a charge of criminal damage to property. Glass said that under a deal with the district attorney's office, the case would be dismissed if the actor provides proof he has completed the service requirement by Aug. 31. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision for David Lynch Foundation, file)
FILE - This June 30, 2012 file photo originally released by the David Lynch Foundation shows Russell Brand at David Lynch Foundation: A Night of Comedy honoring George Shapiro in Beverly Hills, Calif. Brand must perform 20 hours of community service and pay a $500 court fee to resolve a misdemeanor charge stemming from a confrontation with a photographer in New Orleans. Brand did not appear in Municipal Court Thursday morning, but his attorney, Robert Glass, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to a charge of criminal damage to property. Glass said that under a deal with the district attorney's office, the case would be dismissed if the actor provides proof he has completed the service requirement by Aug. 31. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision for David Lynch Foundation, file)

Russell Brand is the subject of an upcoming documentary for BBC Three, entitled "Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery." In the tell-all special, Brand reveals that he feels jealous of his old self when watching footage of him taking heroin.

According to The Sun, the shocking footage -- of Brand smoking smack in his 20s -- will be featured in the BBC film, which depicts Brand’s highs and lows as he recalls his drug-addicted past.

"This is when you know it's a disease. It doesn't matter that I was sat in that flat in Hackney and now I'm in the Savoy. I'm jealous of me then," he tells his friend Martino Sclavi as he watches the homemade video at the London’s Savoy Hotel. "It doesn't make a difference to me. The money, the fame, the power, the sex, the women - none of it. I'd rather be a drug addict."

In April, the comedian and actor testified before a parliamentary committee reviewing U.K. drug policy to call for more "compassionate" action toward drug addicts.

"By regarding addiction as an illness, by offering treatment instead of a more punitive approach, we can prevent people from committing crimes," Brand told members of Parliament, before opening up about his own struggles with heroin addiction. "Personally, I was a criminal when I was a drug addict by virtue of my addiction and the ways that I had to acquire money to get drugs."

According to The Guardian, Brand testified to advocate for treating drug addiction as a health and social welfare issue rather than as a criminal one. Despite cracking a few jokes, Brand was serious in his plea. "I think there needs to be love and compassion for everybody involved," said Brand. "If people are committing criminal behavior, then it needs to be dealt with legally, but you need to offer them treatment."

Brand has been open about his battle to overcome drug addiction in the past and has said society needs to change the way it views addicts. After the death of singer Amy Winehouse in July, Brand wrote a passionate blog post on his website to not only honor his late friend but also to advocate for treatment, claiming that drug addiction should be treated like a potentially fatal illness.

"Addiction is a serious disease; it will end with jail, mental institutions or death," he wrote. "All we can do is adapt the way we view [addiction], not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill."

Brand, who has been sober for nearly a decade, attends AA meetings three times a week in order to keep his addiction in check.

"To me, the gravity is heroin, and then death. You know, to sleep," he told Details magazine last May, "that incremental suicide of turning your life into a dream, to make being awake as similar to sleep as possible. Drowsily, lazily, dry-mouth your way through the day's ceremonies, fumble your way back into the dew-bather you never really left, draped in brown, brown now all around, the haze!"

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