As I understand it, he was an actually recovered addict, so it would be “fueled by the damage drugs had already done to his brain before he quit”.
And I think it was crack.
Not to defend the guy, but for a while there pre COVID, while I was doing some volunteer work, I heard from a connected volunteer that Mikey was donating cases upon cases of pillows to rehab locations in his home state, which, speaking as the bleeding heart liberal that I am who wishes we provided more for services like mental health and addiction, is pretty awesome.
A tax write off is possibly just a tax write off, but for a while, at least, it’s possible he might not have been totally reprehensible.
I mean, he also professed to be Christian and there was a stink about him not paying employees like four or five years ago too, so since the Bible has specific things to say about THAT behavior too, it’s pretty easy to draw conclusions but even people who behave like shit bags can perhaps sometimes be nuanced.