Blue-blood banking heir Matthew Mellon is in the Passages Malibu addiction-treatment center kicking his OxyContin habit.
Mellon was spending $100,000 a month and taking about 80 pills a day when he checked himself in nearly two weeks ago.
“[Using that much] is the death zone,” Mellon told me.
The handsome ex of former Jimmy Choo shoe queen Tamara Mellon and fashion designer Nicole Hanley said he got hooked after suffering a painful surfing injury.
“The doctors kept writing prescriptions like they were Smarties. It’s very irresponsible,” Mellon said. He continued, dead seriously, “OxyContin is like legal heroin. And it needs to be addressed.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently tightened up prescription guidelines after a surge in opioid drug overdoses among white middle-aged patients.
Mellon — who has been flooded with expressions of support from friends — is determined to tame this demon. “I’m here as long as it takes,” he said.