In his posthumous autobiography, Tom Parker revealed how his cannabis use spiralled out of control to the point where he stole from his parents.
The Wanted star tragically died at the age of 33 in March, almost two years after being diagnosed with stage-four incurable glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour in summer 2020.
Written before his death Tom's autobiography, Hope, he detailed the issues in his past with the drug but revealed that it helped him with pain relief in his final moments.
In an excerpt from the book, published in The Sun he detailed his struggles with the drug: "I only ended up lasting six months doing geography at Manchester Met before I f***ed it off.
"After I was kicked out of uni, my weed habit started to become a problem.
"My parents, Noreen and Nigel, are quite liberal-minded, but they couldn’t accept the person that I was becoming and we had a lot of arguments about my cannabis use.
"Over the space of a couple of years I’d gone from casually smoking with my mates to full-on addiction.
"We would do pretty much anything to get high.
"I’m ashamed to say that eventually extended to taking stuff from my parents’ house and pawning it at Cash Converters — videos, jewellery, anything that could get me a few quid.
"That’s how much I’d lost control of who I was.
"The final straw came when somebody posted a birthday card through the door for Mum. I opened it and stole the crisp £10 notes that had been folded inside.
"My parents had to take extreme measures in the hope that I might learn to understand the damaging path that I was on — they kicked me out of our family home.
"I ended up on a sofa in my mate Wayne’s house around the corner for the next few months. I continued this downward spiral — more weed, more drink — and I wouldn’t see my parents, even though they were only a couple of streets away."
Although the drug almost ruined his life as a youngster, Tom turned back to cannabis at the end of his life to help manage the pain.
He said: "I was offered radiotherapy and chemotherapy by the NHS, but that was that.
"I’m a very inquisitive person by nature, so, not content with the options that I’d been presented with, I accessed further treatments, including new experimental drugs and holistic therapies which have each played an important part in my journey.
"For Kelsey and me, it felt natural to explore alternative therapy.
"Despite all the trouble that it caused earlier in my life, I honestly do credit cannabis for that.
"Almost all the doctors I’ve spoken to on this journey mentioned that it could help.
"It’s a way to get through the pain, particularly early on.
"I’ve had other doctors who have frowned at my use of cannabis when it was the only thing giving me any proper pain relief, as if it’s any worse than the heavy-duty drugs that they were prescribing me.
"It’s very frustrating when you find a treatment that you want to try and your oncologist is closed off to it — a drug is only as good as the doctor is with that drug.
"I started to take a few drops of cannabis oil every evening very shortly after my diagnosis."
Hope: My Inspirational Life, by Tom Parker, published on May 26 by Blink Publishing.
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