Uppers, downers and Obama-shaped ecstasy: The Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial is a window into drug culture

Sean “Diddy” Combs appeared to be living like a “shot-caller” referenced in his 1997 hit “It’s All About the Benjamins” right up until his arrest in September. Attorneys for the entrepreneur and music mogul told CNN at the time that they had been negotiating his voluntary surrender before he was taken into custody by Homeland Security Investigations. Among the evidence found Inside the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan where Combs had checked in days before, investigators found bags of lubricant, $9000 in cash, a bottle of clonazepam, and two small bags with pink powder. The contents of the bags tested positive for MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and ketamine, according to a stipulation read in court during his criminal sex trafficking trial. Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, probably would not want the world to know about his past drug use, given his other business and cultural accomplishments. After all, he has publicly said he avoided the fate of his father, Melvin Combs, who reportedly was a drug dealer before he was fatally shot when his son was a toddler. The ongoing trial, however, has laid bare allegations that drugs have seemingly been as much a part of Combs’ past as professional success. Opiates and ecstasy Prosecutors have argued that drugs were part of Combs’ alleged racketeering conspiracy. “The defendant used his employees to get and distribute drugs. They delivered those drugswhenever the defendant asked, including so he could give those same drugs to the women he was forcing to have sex with male escorts,” Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson said in her opening statement last month. Combs’ defense team has acknowledged his past drug use and violence, but maintain it is not related to the criminal charges he’s facing. “We are telling you right now that he is physical, that he is a drug user, and I’m telling you he had a bit of a different sex life,” Teny Geragos, an attorney for Combs, said in her opening statement. “Is that a federal crime? No. You will hear that he got IVs after ingesting drugs. Is that a federal crime? No. He will be responsible. He will be accountable for the things that he did. But we will fight for his freedom throughout the next eight weeks for what he did not do.” Part of the defense strategy seems to involve suggesting Combs’ behavior was influenced by his drug use and jealousy, asking his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who testified about her past substance abuse, about symptoms of withdrawal she may have noticed with Combs in their time together. “It felt unfair when he was so hard on you when he, himself, was a full blown drug addict, right?” Combs’ attorney Anna Estevao asked Ventura during cross-examination. “Yes, you could say,” Ventura responded. Ventura was asked if she believed Combs was an addict and she replied, “I would say he was an addict” before being asked what Combs was addicted to. “Success,” Ventura quipped, adding later that she believed he was addicted to various substances over the years. “Was he addicted to opiates?” Estevao asked. “At a point, yes,” Ventura responded. “How do you know that he was addicted to opiates?” Estevao continued. “Because he told me,” Ventura said. She testified Combs once overdosed on painkillers in February 2012. David James, who formerly worked as a personal assistant to Combs, testified he frequently saw Combs take opiates during the day and ecstasy at night, including a pill once shaped like former President Barack Obama’s face. On a couple of occasions, James procured drugs for Combs and his friends, he testified. Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction specialist who was recently featured as an on-air contributor in “Hollywood Demons” on Max, told CNN, “People could use a lot of drugs and not be a drug addict. ‘Addict’ is a very specific, progressive illness,” he explained. Pinsky has not met or treated Combs. In a video shared on social media by Combs in May 2024, he said, “I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab.” He did not specify what he sought help for, though his post came days after CNN published 2016 hotel surveillance video that showed Combs physically assaulting Ventura. Pinsky gained insight into celebrities and substance abuse through his reality series “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” which aired from 2008 to 2011. “There’s nothing special about celebrities in addiction, except that they can progress more than the average person because there’s not an employer pulling them back,” he told CNN. That means there are fewer guardrails for the rich and famous, given that they don’t have the same level of accountability that comes with having to hold down a regular job or even have those in their lives empowered to get them into treatment. “As such, their disease progresses more,” Pinsky said. “So it can be more outrageous looking.” The public can develop “a naive sense” of what larger-than-life personalities may be like behind closed doors, Pinsky said. “The question I always get all the time is, ‘So what’s up with this person?,’” he added. “As though there’s some separate manual for celebrities.” “No, they’re the same, and they tend to be sicker,” Pinsky said. The Combs trial is expected to continue on for several more weeks.