The son of Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas was sentenced on Wednesday (December 21) to four and a half years in prison for taking drugs while jailed on separate drug offences.
Cameron Douglas, 33, who has long struggled with drug abuse, will begin serving that sentence only after he completes the five year prison term he began in April last year for possessing heroin and dealing large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine out of a New York hotel room.
A tearful and contrite Cameron asked Manhattan federal court Judge Richard Berman to consider his crime a consequence of a drug addiction he has not been able to shake.
Douglas was caught after a prison official noticed his cell window had been covered up. He was found with a pill and a piece of paper which he later admitted had contained heroin.
The judge said that Douglas did not deserve any leniency for admitting to the drugs because he lied to investigators when they asked where he had obtained them.
Douglas' mother left the downtown Manhattan courthouse in tears.
John Russell, Reuters.