#branden

i’m assuming you’re mostly asking about bert. jepha smokes weed, and he, quinn, and dan all did an assortment of drugs when they were in the used together. i don’t have many specific details about jeph, quinn, and dan’s drug use, other than quinn saying that he started smoking weed a couple years after the used started touring, and that he got into mushrooms around the time they were recording in love and death

in this video, bert tells a story about the guys finishing a bottle together and then snorting lines of xanax and hanging each other out the bus window while they’re going down the highway. it’s safe to say that quinn, jeph, and dan were a part of this. if i had to guess what era that took place, i’d be pretty confident it was between 2008 - 2010

quinn is currently sober from drugs and alcohol, though his problems with alcohol escalated after he left the band. his song porcelain is about his experience with addiction

dan and jepha to my knowledge still drink and occasionally do recreational drugs

now, we dive into bert…

in 1997, when he was 15, he started smoking weed with kids from unified studies, the alternative school for “troubled youths” he went to after being kicked out of timpanogos high school for poor attendance.

in this invaluable yahoo music article, he says: “I jumped into everything really quick. I started smoking pot—and I don't necessarily think that it's a gateway drug, but at the same time, it totally was. I was looking for every possible way to get as fucked up as possible, so after a while it was crashing down hard and that's the only thing I spent my time doing.”

(PS. at the beginning of his time in unified studies, he identified as straightedge, though that didn’t last for very long. you can read the zine he wrote when he was 15 here. it’s very cute. unified studies is also where he met his friend tregen, the subject of the canyon.)

(PPS. dan also identified as straightedge before he was in the used. he has a massive XXX tattoo on his back.)

anyways, back to bert: at 16, in 1998, he left home, which he has described in multiple articles as being “kicked out,” but then in this loudwire video, he says that he chose to leave home. i think he’s described it both ways because, as he alluded to in the mtv article, his parents were basically giving him an ultimatum, saying that if he wanted to live there he’d have to conform to their rules regarding the LDS lifestyle, maybe thinking that he wouldn’t actually run away, but to him, staying wasn’t an option.

this is when he began doing “Every kind of drug, whatever I could get my hands on. I was doing meth and that was kind of my drug of choice.”

(full article here^)

note: while he has done heroin, when he says he was going “off the deep end using needles” in the above mentioned mtv article, he’s talking about shooting meth, not heroin.

in this episode of lead singer syndrome, bert talks about homelessness and addiction from ages 16-18 (1998-2000), saying that he “was very lost” and had “a serious crystal meth addiction”

after two years of on-and-off homelessness, he was arrested for meth in late 2000 and spent a week and a half in jail before being bailed out by his dad. he got caught because the meth warehouse he was staying in got raided but i don’t have a source for that quote.

and then he was checked into rehab, after which he went back to his parents house. about joining the used in january 01, he says, “I’d just come out of drug rehab and quit using crystal meth a couple of months before that. I was in a really sensitive place.” he then attended narcotics anonymous meetings, which were court-ordered.

while he had some “clean time” in the very early days of the used, he quickly began using drugs and drinking again once they started doing showcases and touring in late 2001, although he never went back to meth.

his “clean time” it’s important to note, has never included weed; quinn said that bert offered his little brother weed while he was staying at his house in 2001.

bert used an assortment of drugs until he got officially sober in 2012, some specific anecdotes include branden trying to nurse bert back to health with tea after bert had done acid, bert doing more acid and “forgetting who he was”

(full article^)

he did so much acid that he claimed he suffered from lsd being stored in his spinal cord, which is a myth that has been scientifically disproven, but he told a story on the february 2008 loveline of experiencing acid flashbacks when he cracks his neck (flashbacks of childhood trauma) which… i think is likely to be ptsd and not residual lsd in his spinal fluid

it would be impossible to link every time he’s mentioned doing drugs, because he did a lot of drugs for ~15 years and was very open about it.

he talks about hard drugs in the steve-o interview

he also talks about drugs in the joel madden interview (and i think i remember him saying something about dan doing drugs/him trying to make dan do drugs? i can’t be bothered to listen to the whole thing again)

in 2011 he also had a problem with pain pills because he drunkenly fell off the stage and broke his right elbow and his hand. he had surgery and has permanent pins in his elbow now because of that. here’s a vid of him letting keltie colleen feel his elbow pins

(full article^)

two videos of him falling off of the stage if you’re curious

this was at the height of his alcoholism and he ended up going to rehab later that year. (here’s a really in-depth interview about his alcoholism and sobriety but content warning for mentions of self-harm and suicidal behaviour.)

after getting sober in 2012, bert still smoked weed which i mentioned above, and when i say smoked weed i mean he was a stoner. he was high every day. he has been very vocal about the benefits of weed and its decriminalization. here is a podcast he did with clown from slipknot where they talk about weed for an hour, bert describing how it helps with his sleep issues and his anxiety.

the video i linked above with the “snorting xanax” story also goes quite in-depth about his alcoholism and how he believes weed helped him stay sober

in this interview, bert talks about how he no longer does drugs that will “ruin his life” but he still smokes weed as a means of self-medicating due to anxiety

he is now on SSRIs for anxiety and low-level depression, which he’s suffered from since he was a child, though i’m not sure which exact medication hes on.

there are tons more articles and videos where bert speaks about drugs, but this gives a pretty comprehensive story of his drug use over the years.

tldr: if you’re wondering “did bert do [insert drug here]?” the answer is yes, though he’s been clean and sober aside from weed for 14 years. branden is the only member of the band who has never done drugs or alcohol.

CCing @cryptophasiac