Russell Brand: 'I'd rather be a drug addict'

Russell Brand says he has moments when he wishes he could take drugs again. Photo / AP

Russell Brand has admitted that he sometimes wishes he was still a drug addict rather than a famous comedian and actor.

The funnyman, who has battled drug addiction, made the shock confession while filming the BBC documentary Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery, due to air in the UK later this month.

In a clip obtained by Britain's The Sun newspaper, Brand watches a recording of himself smoking heroin in a small apartment in Hackney, London, and - despite being clean from drugs for 10 years - the star admits he still has cravings and sometimes wishes he could give up his current life in favour of how he lived in his 20s.

"This is when you know it's a disease. It doesn't matter that I sat in that flat in Hackney and now I'm in the Savoy (Hotel). I'm jealous of me then. It doesn't make a difference to me. The money, the fame, the power, the sex, the women - none of it. I'd rather be a drug addict," Brand says in the documentary.

However, Brand insists he is well aware of the negative impact the toxic substances had on him and his loved ones.

"Heroin is a greedy drug, it'll take everything. First it'll take your money. Then it'll take your friends, your family, your car, your house. Then it's going to take bits of your body.

"In the end I used to be scoring with people that had eyes missing, limbs missing. You'll take it until it takes your life. It'll take everything until the last thing and you'll gladly give it that rather than give up the drugs," he says.

- WENN