Sharon Stone Reflects on Drug Usage of Family and Friends: ‘A Lot of My Friends Are Dead’

The film actor and activist shined a light on the opioid epidemic while hosting the ART HOUSE Gala honoring Nan Goldin Wednesday

Sharon Stone is speaking out about her experience with losing loved ones to drug abuse.

While hosting the ART HOUSE Gala honoring Nan Goldin on Wednesday, the film actor and activist focused her speech on the alleged drug pushing she has experienced with her son recovering in the hospital from a ski accident.

"I modeled in New York in the late '70s and the '80s. I spent a lot of time at Studio 54. A lot of my friends are dead. Don't f--- with me," Stone, 65, said at The Bowery while shining a light on the medical predicament.

The Casino star added, "Do not cross the line between health and healing and abuse. My brother went to Attica [Prison] — he crossed the line. Do not cross the line with me."

Earlier in her speech, Stone said how she has repeatedly had to ask medical staff to stop administering OxyContin to her son, who she didn't name.

The drug, classified as an opioid, has a high risk for addiction and dependence. The topic has become extremely controversial as the United States has faced a well-documented opioid epidemic, with deaths by overdose from the drug continuing to rise.

Related: Sharon Stone Says Backlash Over AIDS Activism 'Did Destroy My Career': 'I Had to Stick with It'

"Every single stop along the way for the next day and a half I had to have it re-put in his chart. 'Can you please read it back to me?' In a day and a half that it took for him to get a rod and seven pins in his leg, I got six calls. From four nurses, from an anesthesiologist, from doctors, from people completely unrelated to my son's situation, telling me why my son needed OxyContin and no other drug would do. No other drug!"

Stone continued: "Anaphylaxis? 'It's not that bad! How bad is it really? He's 17, when he will be 18, I really think he could make this decision for himself.' Until finally, at the sixth call, I said, 'I'm going on CNN tomorrow and if I get one more of these calls I'm going to say that your hospital is a drug cartel.' "

"This is not because I or Nan disagree with painkillers. We don't. We disagree with paid drug dealers," she added.

Nan Goldin, founder of the advocacy group Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN), has famously shed light on the opioid crisis, LGBTQ+ communities, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Money raised at Bailey House's inaugural event and auction on Wednesday will help fight homelessness and AIDS in N.Y.C.

"I lost my whole community ... At the beginning, nobody knew what this disease was. They called it the gay cancer. ... I keep my people alive through my work," Goldin, 69, told the crowd.

Goldin has "long-supported Bailey House-related causes like helping to fight addiction and homelessness, and we were thrilled to bring her and so many other inspiring figures like Sharon Stone together,” said Josh Wood, CEO and founder of JWP, who produced the event with Bailey House. "It was a moving and inspiring evening that raised funds for a vital purpose."

Teaming up with Goldin, Stone has not shied away from raising her voice on several crises, including the AIDS epidemic, which she said "nearly destroyed" her career in the '90s when very few people were addressing it.

Related: Sharon Stone Says Her Near-Death Experience in 2001 Was 'Very Beautiful' and 'Very Strange'

In 2021, the women's rights champion — who continuously fights back against the double standards women face with aging and sexism — told Variety about her "extreme feminist" father and how he instilled these values in her.

"He came from wealth, from oil drilling, and when he was little, there was a huge accident. His father died three months later and all the money went to another family," Stone remembered.

She continued, "He thought it was so wrong that his mother didn't get half of it, just because she was a woman. My dad was insistent that I have this feminist attitude. So much so that I never thought of myself as a feminist. These were the rules of my household."

Stone first became a mom in 2000 when she and her then-husband Phil Bronstein adopted their first child together, son Roan, 23. In 2005, she adopted her second son, Laird, 18, followed by her third son, Quinn, 16, a year later.

The Silver actress has been open about the several tragedies she's endured throughout her life — both before and after becoming a mother — including multiple miscarriages.

"We, as females don't have a forum to discuss the profundity of this loss. I lost nine children by miscarriage," Stone commented on a PEOPLE Instagram post in 2022. "It is no small thing, physically nor emotionally yet we are made to feel it is something to bear alone and secretly with some kind of sense of failure."

Related: Sharon Stone's 3 Children: Everything to Know

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Despite her hardships, including losing her beloved brother Patrick in February, Stone continues to see her life experiences as lessons.

"I've survived everything — sexual harassment, miscarriages, a brain bleed, divorce, a lightning strike," Stone said in an interview with AARP in April 2021. "I don't have time to fool around. I'm here to be a healthy and present parent, a good daughter, and an engaged citizen. Everything else is just a distraction."

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