Drew Barrymore joked about her involvement in Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug “Just Say No” campaign on this morning’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
It all started when Barrymore pulled up an old photo of “Drew Crewer” Valerie Bertinelli in the 1980s.
“I look at that and I think, ‘That is a puffy face and someone who needs to start taking care of herself.’ I mean, that was the ‘80s, though. I don’t remember that. I don’t remember anything about the ‘80s,” Bertinelli said, noting that for a long time she “felt guilty” about the things she “experimented” with as “a young girl.”
Barrymore, who has been open about her bout with substance abuse as a teenager, joked, “That’s such an ABC Afterschool Special term,” referring to the long-running scripted series that touched on social issues often affecting teenagers.
The actress told Bertinelli that she starred in an episode called “15 and Getting Straight.” The 1989 episode, which also featured Corey Feldman, followed a youth drug addiction treatment center run by former addicts.
“By the way, I was also the ‘Just Say No’ girl with Nancy Reagan,” Barrymore said, before playfully adding, “Until I just said yes.”
However, Barrymore had seemingly already experimented with drugs by the time she became the face of the former First Lady’s “Just Say No” campaign in 1987. The actress said in a February 2024 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show that she was “smoking at nine [and] doing drugs at 11.” She was ultimately treated for a drug and alcohol addiction at a Los Angeles institution when she was only 13.
“I forgive us [for] all of that,” Bertinelli told Barrymore on today’s episode. “We coped the way we knew how to cope with a really challenging, strange life. And also, we have to start giving ourselves grace for just trying to learn through stuff.”
Barrymore added, “I bet we hurt ourselves more than we hurt others.”
The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes.
