“Y R U in PR? MJ’s DEAD!!!” I take it personally for a moment. “I’M NOT A PSYCHIC!!” is my irritated reply. This is the biggest celebrity news to break since my show started, and I’m stranded on an island thousands of miles away from this monumental story. Since I was one of a small cluster of reporters in the courtroom for the entire Michael Jackson molestation trial, I’m particularly associated with all things Jackson. Talk about bad timing! My frustration meter is peaking, but I force myself to let it go with a shrug because I’m totally powerless over this predicament.
Fortunately for me, this is a story with . . . as they say . . . legs.
In the coming days, the world would learn about the King of Pop’s addiction to his “milk.” That was Jackson’s nickname for the powerful surgical knockout drug propofol, which is only supposed to be used in hospital settings to put patients under for surgery. Doctors have jokingly called the white liquid “milk of amnesia” for its ability to almost instantly render a person completely unconscious. It would turn out that Michael was using propofol as a sleep aid to get some serious naptime in as he prepared for his make-or-break comeback tour ironically entitled “This Is It.” Propofol would literally knock him out in a second or two, guaranteeing the superstar at least a few hours’ respite from his chronic insomnia.
Michael Jackson had an in-house physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who would later be charged with involuntary manslaughter for his actions in the hours leading up to Jackson’s death. Cops say the doctor admitted to giving Jackson a head-spinning cocktail of drugs over the course of just a few hours. The list included the sedatives Valium, lorazepam (Ativan), and midazolam (Versed), plus the painkiller lidocaine, topped off with propofol (Diprivan). 2
While the circumstances of Michael Jackson’s death may have seemed shocking, they shouldn’t have surprised anyone. A couple of years before his death, Michael Jackson had been sued after racking up a $100,000 tab at a Beverly Hills pharmacy. 3 Famous friends, from Uri Geller to Deepak Chopra, were extremely concerned about the star: Chopra refused him painkillers, and Gellar warned Jackson he was going to die if he continued to abuse drugs. 4 But here’s the key fact—not a single drug mentioned in connection with Michael Jackson’s death is an illegal drug. They were all legal prescription drugs being inappropriately prescribed and then abused by perhaps the world’s most famous, and arguably, most talented pill popper.
Falling Stars
Michael Jackson has plenty of competition. The list of celebrities who have overdosed on legal prescription drugs is long and growing fast. Heath Ledger overdosed in his fashionable Manhattan loft on a combination of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, alprazolam, temazepam, and doxylamine, otherwise known as the painkillers OxyContin and Vicodin, the antianxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and the sleep aids Restoril and Unisom. 5 Again, all perfectly legal . . . and all potentially deadly when combined and otherwise misused. Anna Nicole Smith had a head-spinning array of legal prescription drugs in her system when she died in a Florida hotel room. Lexapro, Zoloft, Cipro, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan, Robaxin, and the powerful sleep aid chloral hydrate were found in her system. Reports claimed that toward the end, Anna Nicole was slugging chloral hydrate right out of the bottle. 6
Shop to Pop Till You Drop
We’ve all heard about secretly addicted patients who go from doctor to doctor, claiming all sorts of ailments, from back pain to migraines, convincing each physician to prescribe painkillers before moving on to the next M.D. Many of these patients will also go into psychological therapy to squeeze antianxiety meds and antidepressants out of their psychiatrists. The various doctors don’t know about each other and have no idea (or pretend to have no idea) that
Fortunately for me, this is a story with . . . as they say . . . legs.
In the coming days, the world would learn about the King of Pop’s addiction to his “milk.” That was Jackson’s nickname for the powerful surgical knockout drug propofol, which is only supposed to be used in hospital settings to put patients under for surgery. Doctors have jokingly called the white liquid “milk of amnesia” for its ability to almost instantly render a person completely unconscious. It would turn out that Michael was using propofol as a sleep aid to get some serious naptime in as he prepared for his make-or-break comeback tour ironically entitled “This Is It.” Propofol would literally knock him out in a second or two, guaranteeing the superstar at least a few hours’ respite from his chronic insomnia.
Michael Jackson had an in-house physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who would later be charged with involuntary manslaughter for his actions in the hours leading up to Jackson’s death. Cops say the doctor admitted to giving Jackson a head-spinning cocktail of drugs over the course of just a few hours. The list included the sedatives Valium, lorazepam (Ativan), and midazolam (Versed), plus the painkiller lidocaine, topped off with propofol (Diprivan). 2
While the circumstances of Michael Jackson’s death may have seemed shocking, they shouldn’t have surprised anyone. A couple of years before his death, Michael Jackson had been sued after racking up a $100,000 tab at a Beverly Hills pharmacy. 3 Famous friends, from Uri Geller to Deepak Chopra, were extremely concerned about the star: Chopra refused him painkillers, and Gellar warned Jackson he was going to die if he continued to abuse drugs. 4 But here’s the key fact—not a single drug mentioned in connection with Michael Jackson’s death is an illegal drug. They were all legal prescription drugs being inappropriately prescribed and then abused by perhaps the world’s most famous, and arguably, most talented pill popper.
Falling Stars
Michael Jackson has plenty of competition. The list of celebrities who have overdosed on legal prescription drugs is long and growing fast. Heath Ledger overdosed in his fashionable Manhattan loft on a combination of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, alprazolam, temazepam, and doxylamine, otherwise known as the painkillers OxyContin and Vicodin, the antianxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and the sleep aids Restoril and Unisom. 5 Again, all perfectly legal . . . and all potentially deadly when combined and otherwise misused. Anna Nicole Smith had a head-spinning array of legal prescription drugs in her system when she died in a Florida hotel room. Lexapro, Zoloft, Cipro, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan, Robaxin, and the powerful sleep aid chloral hydrate were found in her system. Reports claimed that toward the end, Anna Nicole was slugging chloral hydrate right out of the bottle. 6
Shop to Pop Till You Drop
We’ve all heard about secretly addicted patients who go from doctor to doctor, claiming all sorts of ailments, from back pain to migraines, convincing each physician to prescribe painkillers before moving on to the next M.D. Many of these patients will also go into psychological therapy to squeeze antianxiety meds and antidepressants out of their psychiatrists. The various doctors don’t know about each other and have no idea (or pretend to have no idea) that
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