Once Caught in Drug Twilight, Jackson Says
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DOVER, N.H. — Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson told patients at a drug rehabilitation center that he was briefly dependent on a painkiller while recovering from a football injury in college.
Jackson, who often delivers a stirring anti-drug speech to young people, recalled that he once considered stealing a bracelet from his mother to buy more of the drug.
“Why am I so sympathetic and empathetic?” Jackson asked about 85 patients at Seaborne Hospital on Sunday night. “Because I was trapped for a moment myself.”
The audience chuckled as he talked of being in the “twilight zone” because of painkillers he received while hospitalized for a leg injury he said he suffered during a football game in his sophomore year in college.
Jackson recalled telling his doctor, “Damn, doc, right on. What is this stuff? I want some more of this.” Jackson did not specify which painkiller had been prescribed or how he overcame the dependence.
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