August 03, 2001
Aaron Sorkin Says He Used Drugs
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The West Wing" TV series, said he used cocaine and smoked marijuana before his April drug arrest despite assertions by friends that it represented a one-time lapse."It wasn't the first time, but it wasn't the fifth time, either," Sorkin says in Talk magazine's September issue.
He did not depend on drugs to relieve the pressure of writing the Emmy-winning NBC drama, Sorkin said.
"If you use drugs long enough you forget how to celebrate without them," he said. He has used rock cocaine "fewer than a handful of times" over the last few years and never when he's writing, he told Talk.
"I've tried to have one potato chip, if you will, and succeeded," he said. He smoked marijuana "from time to time," Sorkin said.
He said he's vowed there will be no more slip-ups and is adhering to his court-ordered diversion program that includes random tests for illegal substances.
Sorkin, 39, said he and his wife, Julia, already had made a decision to separate before his recent woes. He hopes they will reunite, he said, and he visits their 9-month-old daughter regularly.
Sorkin, who had been treated for a cocaine habit in 1995, was arrested April 15 at Burbank Airport after marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and rock cocaine were found in his bag.
The writer's friends and colleagues publicly expressed confidence that he was clean and called the arrest an aberration, but they were being guided by what Sorkin had told them, according to the magazine.
He pleaded guilty in June to a misdemeanor and two felony counts, and was allowed to enter a drug treatment program instead of serving prison time.
In an interview in the upcoming issue of TV Guide, Sorkin said he smoked crack cocaine daily while writing the 1995 movie "The American President."
"That is why it took me three years to write the script," he said. He entered Minnesota's Hazelden Institute at the urging of friends, including Rob Reiner, director of "The American President."
