Did Gary Busey snort cocaine off his dog?
The list of Gary Busey‘s film appearances contains some truly excellent works of cinema. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in 1978’s The Buddy Holly Story before going on to feature in A Star is Born, Lethal Weapon, Point Break, Straight Time, Lost Highway and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
However, with fame comes all the temptations associated with it, and Busey fell victim to what so many other actors experience – a maddening cocaine addiction. In fact, at one point, Busey’s penchant for the white stuff was so strong that he allegedly snorted a few bags off his poor dog, Chili.
The rather tragic incident occurred in the midst of Busey’s addiction, and when the actor accidentally dropped his stash on the floor, his dog suddenly rolled around in it. But rather than accept his losses, Busey thought the best course of action was to snort the scattered coke right off his dog’s back.
Busey once admitted to the rumours when appearing on Access Hollywood. He said, “I went in like a cropduster with my nose flying first and snorted the cocaine off the dog. You get little bugs; you get little hairs, you get grease and goo from the ground – it’s not at all a healthy thing to do.”
Evidently, there’s a real tragedy to hearing of Busey admitting to snorting cocaine off his dog, but it was clear that he had a serious addiction that meant thinking straight wasn’t exactly at the top of his list of priorities. “When you’re an addict, you don’t think of health; you think about the destruction of yourself unconsciously,” he noted.
During an interview with Maxim, Busey further explained the strange incident. He said: “I came home one day, took off my windbreaker, and three bindles of cocaine fell to the floor. Well, my dog, Chili, who has short hair, came in and laid on her back with her legs in the air, and she rubbed all my cocaine on her back and side. I yelled, ‘No, Chili! No’.”
The actor continued: “So I got a straw, and I started brushing her hair and snorting where I saw cocaine. Back, butt, side – not a spot was left. It took me 25 minutes to snort all the cocaine the dog had on her coat. The fringe benefits of this were that the fleas, the dog hair, the mud, and the sweat went in my nose, too. It’s not a good flavour coming off the dog.”
So it’s not the nicest incident we’ve heard Busey be involved in, but it’s a stark reminder of the dangers of addiction. Thankfully, Busey has kicked the habit and lives a life of sobriety, so Chili the dog, should she remain on this earth, is safe from any further snorting. Still, it’s likely that Busey will look back on that moment of his life with due embarrassment.
