ICE T, RUSSELL SIMMONS, COMMON & OTHERS TALK DRUGS

Ice T, Russell Simmons, Chuck D, Liz Phair, Common, Juliette Lewis, Tommy Chong, Questlove, Henry Rollins, John Mellencamp, and Richard Lewis are some of the celebrities who are featured in VH1’s four-part documentary, The Drug Years, which examines the rise of drug use in America.

The four-part documentary is part of VH1’s VH1 Rock Docs and its being produced in conjucntion with the Sundance Channel. The series, which is based on the book, Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age by Martin Torgoff, airs this week on VH1 with encores running on the Sundance Channel after June 16th.

“You got to catch the audience, the audience’s attention. You just can’t walk up to them kids and just say, ‘Don’t do drugs.’ They’re like, ‘F**k you!’ You know I go into the penitentiaries and when I talk to these kids. Before I can even get anybody’s attention, I got to give them my pedigree. I got to tell them what I been through then I got their attention. They’re like, ‘Yeah okay Ice, you the truth. Yeah what’s happening.'”

Ice T, who came up as a pimp and hustler in Los Angeles, explains who difficult it is to get message across to children these days. He said,