Los Angeles, Nov 16 (IANS): Actor Brian Cox smoked opium during a trip to India and admits it gave him a "rather good feeling". He even tried bhang lassi.
The "Troy" star confessed he smoked the morphine-based substance when he visited an opium den in Mumbai during a theatrical tour of the country in the 1980s, reports contactmusic.com.
Cox admits he only tried it once as an experiment, but insists the drug gave him a feeling of being "very at one with the world".
"It's something I have spoken about privately but never before in such a public way. I believe you have to be honest and admit your humanity. You can't be above it all. When I went to India, I was in an environment when I could try it in the right conditions. It was the conditions that were important. It was only there I could try it - so I did," Cox told Scottish newspaper The Herald.
"I tried other things. In Calcutta (now Kolkata), I had bhang lassi, a yoghurt drink with poppy seeds at the bottom which has a slightly hallucinogenic effect," he added.
He has no regrets.
"But I do think you have to be responsible. I was never into it when I was younger because I didn't like the idea of it. I was very puritanical. I thought it was a bit of an indulgence on people's parts," he said.
Cox opened about his tryst with drugs as part of a TV documentary series.