Tatum O'Neil--A Bad News Crack Bear

Tatum O'Neil was arrested Sunday for buying crack and coke in NY City. The reasons behind Tatum's drug purchase are many, but summed up nicely in this USMagazine piece:

Three weeks ago, O'Neal said, "I lost my Scottish terrier, Lena. That seemed to set me off.

"She got old. She got cancer. She was the fabric of our family. We had to let her go to heaven. My daughter and I had to put her down. It was too horrible for words.

"I couldn't get out of it," O'Neal said. "I was going to my psychiatrist. I was doing everything I could do. I have the disease of alcoholism. It's lifelong. I treat it every day by going to my 12-step program."

The dog's death, she said, "triggered that my mother passed away [from addiction] in '98. My father [actor Ryan O'Neal] and I are estranged."

Scottish terriers are beautiful animals, I can fully relate to Tatum.

I remember when my pet squirrel, Mr. Nuts, passed away, it was horrible. I found him hanging from the rafters in The Manor by a home-made noose constructed of one of my old socks and some picture frame wire. I, too, went to a psychiatrist for months, but I just couldn't seem to get past it. I ended up buying a few pounds of black tar heroin and shot it my ear-hole with a rusty needle. I also had the disease of alcoholism. In reality though, alcoholism really isn't a disease. I mean, it's not like MS or Cerebral Palsy, is it? Anyway, between finding my squirrel all messed up and with my mom having elective surgery to get her breasts enhanced, coupled with my dad not talking to me for years (he's dead), I couldn't stand it any longer and I turned to the heroin.

I suppose if I was to give some advice to those of you that lost a close family pet, my advice would be that heroin is a pretty great fucking drug.