VICODIN HAS BECOME THE ECSTASY OF 2001 IN SELECT CIRCLES

Regular Folk As Well As As Celebrities Have Fallen Under Spell Of Painkiller

"Anyway, I found 10 Vicodin in my gift basket." -- David Spade, reacting to
Heather Locklear's wacky behavior onstage at the Golden Globes in January.

OUR level of compassion about a celebrity's drug addiction seems to
parallel the performance level of the celeb involved.

Robert Downey Jr.? A sad story, and more so because he's so talented. Did
you see how his peers honored him with a Screen Actors Guild award? What a
bittersweet moment for such a troubled artist.

For Matthew Perry, the sympathy meter isn't quite so high, but we do feel
for the amiable star of television's "Friends" and the occasional
not-terrible movie. He doesn't have Downey's range, but we like him.

My goodness, even though Perry was a grown man when "Friends" debuted, he's
undergone more startling physical transformations on the show than Jerry
Mathers did during the run of "Leave It To Beaver." You gotta feel for him.

But when we hear that Yasmine Bleeth of "Baywatch" is in rehab, we cluck
and titter.

What, she was tormented by having to wear that unforgiving one-piece? She
turned to mind-altering substances because of the inner turmoil she felt
when wrestling with a particularly difficult piece of dialogue?

Please.

That's obviously not fair. Addiction is addiction, and it should be wished
upon no one, not even shallow eye-candy. We all know and love people who
have been afflicted with alcoholism and drug addiction, and we can only be
thankful if and when they kick the demons -- and supportive as they face
down those demons every day.

These days in Hollywood, there's a new darling devil of choice, and his
name is Vicodin. Courtney Love calls Vicodin "the new LSD -- Lead Singer's
Drug."

"Who isn't doing (Vicodin)?" she says in the new issue of Us magazine.
"Everyone who makes it starts popping them."

That's a stupid overstatement, of course. To cite just a few examples, I
haven't heard about Oprah, Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Julia Roberts or
anybody from "The Sopranos" entering rehab for Vicodin addiction.

But Love's hyperbole shines a certain reflection on a real problem. A lot
of celebrities -- and hundreds of thousands of good old regular folks --
have fallen under the spell of Vicodin, which is actually a brand name of
the painkiller hydrocodone.

Just a few of the Vicodin-related celebrity misadventures:

As I pointed out in a column late last year, Melanie Griffith has
chronicled her problems with Vicodin on a diary she posts on her Web site.

Eminem has a tattoo of a Vicodin pill on his left arm.

Rep. Mary Bono said her late husband, Sonny, was most likely in a Vicodin-
and Valium-induced fog when he skied into that tree.

On an episode of "The Simpsons," Homer, of all (cartoon) people, alluded to
a past problem with Vicodin.

Other celebrities who have gone public with Vicodin addictions include
supermodel Niki Taylor, Green Bay Packers' quarterback Brett Favre,
ghoulish singer Michael Jackson, baseballer Daryl Strawberry, oft-troubled
singers James Brown and Johnny Cash, and Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John
McCain.

It usually starts with an injury. You sprain your ankle, you undergo a
surgical procedure, you throw your back out -- and the doc writes you a
prescription for painkillers -- usually Vicodin.

I know. I've had a few bottles in my medicine cabinet over the years --
after a rotator cuff procedure, when I broke a toe, stuff like that.

Vicodin works. Vicodin is your friend. Vicodin is the best warm blanket you
ever snuggled in.

Not only does it mask the pain, it envelopes you in a warm sedative that is
not unlike opium, according to some experts.

Vicodin can also mess with your digestive system, give you the shakes and
disrupt your sleeping patterns, but you don't much care about that when
you're under its spell.

The long-term effects caused by addiction to these painkillers aren't so
easily shrugged off. Too much Vicodin can ruin your liver, cause kidney and
respiratory problems, screw with your heart rate and cause cardiac arrest.

Yet Vicodin has become the Ecstasy of 2001 in certain circles, with bowls
of pills being passed around at parties, and abusers turning to street
dealers when their doctors refuse to write another prescription.

The last time I had a prescription for Vicodin, I ran out of pain before I
ran out of pills. It didn't even occur to me to keep taking them for the
kick of it.

That doesn't mean I'm a better or stronger person than the other people who
succumb to Vicodin addiction. It only means I was smart enough to know that
I'm not.

Richard Roeper is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and the co-host of
"Ebert & Roeper and the Movies."