RuPaul's drug use started at just 10 years old

'Drag Race' icon RuPaul has revealed he was "smoking weed" by 10 years old as he reflects on his past drug use.

RuPaul 

RuPaul has admitted he was "smoking weed" by the age of 10.

The 63-year-old 'Drag Race' star has opened up about his past drug use - having been a user for 30 years - and admitted he was experimenting at a very young age.

Appearing on Spotify's 'Call Her Daddy' podcast, he said: "I started using when I was 10 years old. I started smoking weed when I was 10 years old.

"It was a different time... It was a different thing. It's not like people think of it today."

When he was just 13, he used his first hard drug, a pill called a 'red devil', but he doesn't remember the effects.

However, he recalled: "I wasn't afraid of drugs."

RuPaul did point out that he "never shot up" during his time using drugs, although in his 20s he "dropped acid every weekend".

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He said: "Every weekend. Four hits of acid every weekend... It was the proof I had that this world is an illusion.

"That everything you think you know about solid objects or what people are is a lie. I had that suspicion before I dropped acid, so when I dropped acid, it was like, 'Yes, this is it exactly!'

"The people who freak out... those are the people that it never occurred to them that this is an illusion... It lifts the veil of the illusion, the fantasy that we collectively agree to in our lives."

RuPaul - who "used for 30 years" - insisted the first two decades "were a blast", but the last 10 years "were pure hell".

Still, he "thanks God for the drugs and alcohol", insisting it saved his life.

He explained: "It gave me a layaway plan, a deferment plan until I was strong enough to deal with what was going on.

"Thankfully, I found a 12-step program that really, really, really helped me so much that I am in love with. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that...

"The success I have today, I wouldn't have that if it weren't for this 12-step program... because it gives you all the processing tools to deal with all of the trauma of what life is."