life:

Russell Brand, a former addict, and friend of Winehouse when she was an unknown talent, wrote this tribute to express his sadness over Winehouse’s death on his website:

“Now Amy Winehouse is dead, like many others whose unnecessary deaths have been retrospectively romanticised, at 27 years old. Whether this tragedy was preventable or not is now irrelevant. It is not preventable today. We have lost a beautiful and talented woman to this disease. Not all addicts have Amy’s incredible talent. Or Kurt’s or Jimi’s or Janis’s, some people just get the affliction. All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill. We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care. We need to look at the way our government funds rehabilitation. It is cheaper to rehabilitate an addict than to send them to prison, so criminalisation doesn’t even make economic sense. Not all of us know someone with the incredible talent that Amy had but we all know drunks and junkies and they all need help and the help is out there. All they have to do is pick up the phone and make the call. Or not. Either way, there will be a phone call.”

read the entire tribute here.

Drugs and booze seem to go hand in hand with stardom, as we’ve seen far too many times— Russell is best known as the foulmouthed British comedian. He is a former sex and heroin addict who quit his habits after being caught doing drugs in a bathroom at a Christmas party. He’s been clean and sober since 2002.

see more — Stars Who Beat Addiction

Russell Brand is one of my favorites…his tact and skill with words is always surprising.