Jada Pinkett Smith's Baltimore upbringing was surrounded by drugs. At home, her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, was addicted to heroin. Out in the streets, residents of her hometown often came in contact with drugs in one way or another. "Drugs were going to touch you, period. You could use them, you could sell them, but there was no being in an environment like that and drugs not touch you," Smith revealed in an October 2023 interview with People.
The future star eventually became a peddler as a way to make ends meet. Her goal was to be able to support herself to the point of self-reliance. "I wasn't trying to use drugs," Smith told the publication. "... But I wanted money so that I could be independent. I wanted to take care of myself." Although the habit was illegal, Smith would compensate for it by being generous toward the needy. While it helped Smith survive financially during this time, she admitted, "It put me into a lot of danger and I hurt a lot of people along the way."
In the course of her dark past, Smith met Tupac Shakur. Unfortunately, she was ready to leave the lifestyle behind, as she revealed on Sway's Universe in 2017, but Shakur was just getting in. When Smith finally left Baltimore, the bold and vigilant spirit she'd exhibited in her dealings became her tools for surviving the cut-throat entertainment business in Los Angeles.
