Why was bale going through opiate withdrawal in prison from crack?

According to the director's commentary, Bale researched crack cocaine withdrawal and that's what he was portraying in the movie. People are more familiar with opiate withdrawal, though, and maybe they confused the two.

Unfortunately the moral line taken around drugs in movies is most often this unrealistic and childish perspective.


"Science is the poetry of reality." Richard Dawkins

That's exactly what I was saying to my wife when I seen this jail scene. I smoked this sh!t for 5 years before I got clean and went several days without repeatedly over this span (when I ran out of money) and never had any withdrawals like that. I'd usually just sleep the cravings off and after I sweated it out for the night I always felt so much better and clear-headed, but once my paycheck hit, it was back on. I think it was different for me because I held a job during the day and would rock out all night so I always had to keep my night activities on the DL so I never got to the level he did, besides I was too paranoid to smoke around people any more. I had to make sure I locked myself indoor covered all windows and covered anything with a reflection (because I seen things in the reflections that freaked me out).

I believe they did the withdrawal scene for dramatics, but then again, maybe Dickie did go through that. I'm sure he was a consultant on this movie and they portrayed the character accurately. Most crack heads I knew were also heroin users as well as alcoholics, and would just switch back a forth with whatever was available and I'm willing to bet Dickie did more than just crack. I started watching High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, to get a better idea who Dickie was as a person/crackhead but seeing all that hit too close to home. BTW, talk about synchronicity or coincidences, but it's playing for free on Crackle.com http://tinyurl.com/7wcb749

Edit -

I forgot to add, there is no, "Unless he smoked constantly". When you smoke crack, it's extremely difficult to stop smoking it constantly. There was a running joke in the houses I had frequented, they would say, "Try putting a rock in your top dresser drawer and try not to touch it until the next day", it would never happen. You usually stop when you run out of money, die, or go to jail. For me, it was the fact that I had to go to work the next day (or within a few hours, so I had to sober up). I didn't have a hustle like them (stealing golf clubs, prostituting, etc.) I had to work a 9-5 Mon through Fri, so when my money ran out, I was glad. Smoking that sh!t started out as the most euphoric experience ever, but then turned into a demonic nightmare every time I took a hit and I couldn't stop until the well ran dry. BTW, because I had a job, I had massive credit will all my dealers, but it came at a cost of 2 for 1 on credit. Man, at the time PS3's were going for $600, I could have bought one of those every week.
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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

If he used only cocaine, then the withdrawal scenes were definitely not accurate. There are only two conclusions I could draw, either 1. They dramatized the scenario either out of ignorance, or in order to exaggerate his recovery. 2. He was abusing multiple drugs, mixing his freebase crack addiction with opiates or benzos. If that was the case, I'm not sure what would have been true in regards to the real Dick Eklund, it is most likely that he was taking Xanax or some type of similar medication which if he was addicted to, he would have suffered worse withdrawals then even depicted. You are in danger of dying if you do not detox from benzos with help, as opposed to opiates which have a hellish withdrawal (I know unfortunately from personal experience) but you are not in danger of dying, you only feel like it. So, I'm not really sure what the explanation is, but I'm guessing it was a mistake on the directors part purely for dramatic purposes.

I also saw someone bring up the prison system not doing anything for his withdrawal. It is my understanding that unless you are prescribed a medication before going in that you can continue while inside to maintain sobriety without withdrawals (Suboxone, Methdadone) that you will be provided the opportunity to incur detox as part of your time sentenced. And depending on how long your sentence is, they might have you go through detox rather than you continue a medication. But, this movie takes place in the early 90's and I do not think the system back then was as forgiving to addicts. Society has come a long way in that regard, especially in the prison system, and I think it is only fairly recently that they started to provide the proper services to inmates with addiction problems who need detox, or medication.

I'm not gonna read through 5 pages of people arguing about scientology, so apologies if anyone has mentioned this, but most crack heads do heroin or oxycodone as well. Watch any documentary on Crack (hell, the one the movie features probably mentions this) and you'll see that people tend to use both together, either using heroin as a come-down high off of crack's intense, brief high, or using crack to get them going again if they're *beep* on heroin. The guy was addicted to crack, chances are he took enough heroin to have withdrawals. Guy at my gym used to be a crack head, but was telling me all about his methodone treatment, because like the vast majority of crack addicts, he used heoin too.