Downey Jr became drug addict 'by accident'

The ‘Iron Man’ star Robert Downey Jr – who was arrested and attended rehab several times between 1996 and 2001 – insists he had always promised himself he would never try class A narcotics and only realised he had a problem when he used drugs to get rid of his “flu”-like symptoms.

He said: “That first time it was opium. The second time it looked like opium. Looked the same, smelled the same, a little dirtier, not quite as pristine a buzz and by the time three weeks later, when I woke up, thought I had the flu and took a hit on it, I looked up and said, ‘Great. So now we’re junkies. This is f**king great.’