Death by Drugs

Another Day, Another Dose

It wasn’t even my prescription. A friend asked me if I’d ever tried Oxycontin. I told her no and asked her what it was. She said it was a pain pill and gave an incredible high. I really didn’t hesitate to try it. After all, it was only going to be once, what was the big deal? She told me to chew it and not swallow it whole. Within just a couple of minutes I felt better than I had ever felt in my life. So warm, tingly, high and content. I felt so relaxed and yet so aware. Soon after that high hit, I knew I was going to want more of this stuff.

Drug Addiction Stories Another Day, Another Dose Part 1That’s how it started. I began slowly; only taking one or two pills a day. Then I had to up the dosage because I just wasn’t feeling the same great high I did the first few times. Then I went from once a day, to twice a day, to so many times I lost count. Once I had gotten past 3 pills a day, my friend started charging me for them. After all, I guess she had to buy them too. At first, I thought I could control it. When I started wanting to increase the number of pills, I started to wonder how I was going to pay for them. That wasn’t easy since I was getting really sick of my job. I’d rather be high and enjoying it than working anyway.

Somewhere along the line I did lose my job because I was missing so much work. It really bothered me but all I had to do was take a hit of Oxy and everything would be fine. Money started to become a real issue, though. I couldn’t pay the bills and I wasn’t working and most importantly, I needed my Oxycontin. That’s when I first decided to start having male “friends” over. They were decent enough guys, so it was really no big deal. The thing is, that made me enough for my fix but not enough for everything else. Hey, when you can have a fantastic high, who needs anything else? I moved out of that house and just got one of those little sleeping rooms. Next thing I had to do was get the word out about my “services”. I wasn’t really a hooker. I mean, I wasn’t walking the streets or anything.

Credit to http://addiction.narcononrehab.com/

Update on the Anna Nicole Case

We have more details from the Anna Nicole Smith drug-peddling case.

Florida-based medical examiner Dr. Harold Schueler told the court today that the former Playmate was seriously ill in the days before her death, suffering from an abscess on her buttock from injections of drugs. The condition may have contributed to her death on Feb. 8, 2007.

"Infections would have had an impact on her ability to withstand the drugs," the doctor said, reducing her tolerance to the sedatives and muscle relaxers she had been taking for pain, anxiety and insomnia. "Her respiratory system could also have been compromised."

In other words, it wasn't just a minor boo-boo.

Meanwhile, former bodyguard Maurice "Mo" Brighthaupt testified that he saw Smith sidekick/defendant Howard K. Stern injecting her with medication on at least five occasions after the the death of her son, Daniel.

Still waiting to take the stand: Smith's baby daddy, Larry Birkhead.

Schueler and Brighthaupt's remarks came in day two of the preliminary hearing for Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor, who are facing a litany of felony count for conspiracy to furnish Smith the drugs that led to her death. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Brighthaupt, who works as a firefighter and paramedic in Miami, said he first met Smith and Stern in 2003, when he began working for the former Playmate. He described her as happy and fun-loving and said she called him "Mo-Mo."

"I would watch her back," he said. "I would treat her as a big brother would treat a little sister."

Brighthaupt testified that he witnessed Smith's mood changed drastically after Daniel's died in 2006. She was so grief-stricken, he said, that she routinely downed antidepressants and postnatal drugs. (Smith and Birkhead's daughter, Dannielynn, was born right before Daniel died.) He also recalled seeing Anna drink chloral hydrate straight from the bottle. Brighthaupt testified that on one occasion that year the doctor personally delivered the drug to Smith in the Bahamas.

Stern, knew about her use of chloral hydrate and would pass her the bottle when she asked for it, Brighthaupt testified.

"Eroshevich said that Anna had a hard time sleeping and she was reluctant to bring it [chloral hydrate], but she was saying she had to sleep and this was the only thing that would make her feel better," he said. "Anna was begging for it."

Eroshevich and Stern took to injecting the drug into Smith's body, Brighthaupt said, because Smith "felt that if you put it in the blood system...it would get into the system faster."

The hearing is expected to last two to four weeks. At the end, the judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to warrant trial.

Yesterday, the prelim kicked off with the lead investigator in the case revealing some rather ghoulish details about what police uncovered about Smith's final days, among them that the buxom blond was found lifeless, lying in her own feces in a hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Detectives also found bottles containing hundreds of prescription pills in her room, many of which Smith obtained through various aliases.

The defense has argued that most of the prescription medication found in Smith's system was considered therapeutic and far below the dosage levels doctors normally prescribe.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry voiced repeated frustration with the pace of the preliminary hearing, now in its second day, and urged prosecutors to move quickly through evidence about Smith's death and focus on evidence related to illegal prescribing and other charges against the defendants.

When a prosecutor asked a toxicologist to testify about the hypothetical effect of hundreds of pills prescribed to Smith 10 days before her death, the judge interrupted with a question that seemed to get at a central issue in the case.

"Whose fault is it that somebody takes too many pills?" the judge asked.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Renee Rose replied that the defendants were "fully aware" that Smith was an addict who could not control herself around drugs.

"It's like putting a gun in the hand of someone who is suicidal and saying don't pull the trigger," Rose said.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley, in the humblest of circumstances, was born to Vernon and Gladys Presley in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jessie Garon, was stillborn, leaving Elvis to grow up as an only child. He and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1948, and Elvis graduated from Humes High School there in 1953. Biography Elvis’ musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager. In 1954, he began his singing career with the legendary Sun Records label in Memphis. In late 1955, his recording contract was sold to RCA Victor. By 1956, he was an international sensation. With a sound and style that uniquely combined his diverse musical influences and blurred and challenged the social and racial barriers of the time, he ushered in a whole new era of American music and popular culture.

He starred in 33 successful films, made history with his television appearances and specials, and knew great acclaim through his many, often record-breaking, live concert performances on tour and in Las Vegas. Globally, he has sold over one billion records, more than any other artist. His American sales have earned him gold, platinum or multi-platinum awards for 150 different albums and singles, far more than any other artist. Among his many awards and accolades were 14 Grammy nominations (3 wins) from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received at age 36, and his being named One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation for 1970 by the United States Jaycees. Without any of the special privileges his celebrity status might have afforded him, he honorably served his country in the U.S. Army.

His talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humor endeared him to millions, as did the humility and human kindness he demonstrated throughout his life. Known the world over by his first name, he is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth century popular culture. Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 42. He had been on the toilet, but fallen off onto the floor, where he lay in a pool of his own vomit. Panicked, his staff contacted an ambulance, which rushed him to nearby Baptist Memorial Hospital, where, after several attempts to revive him, he died at 3:30 pm CST. His autopsy was performed at 7:00 pm.

The official coroner's report lists "cardiac arrhythmia" as the cause of Presley's death, but this was later admitted to be a ruse entered into by the Presley family along with autopsy physicians Dr. Jerry T. Francisco, Dr. Eric Muirhead and Dr. Noel Florredo to cover up the real cause of death, a cocktail of ten prescribed drugs, taken in doses no doctor would prescribe:

The painkillers Morphine and Demerol.Chloropheniramine, an antihistamine.
The tranquilizers Placidyl and Valium. Finally, four drugs were found in "significant" quantities: Codeine, an opiate, Ethinamate, largely prescribed at the time as a "sleeping pill," Quaalude's, and a barbiturate, or depressant, that has never been identified. It has also been rumored that Diazepam, Amytal, Nembutal, Carbrital, Sinutab, Elavil, Avental, and Valmid were found in his system at death.

The phrase "cardiac arrhythmia," in the context of the coroner's report, means little more than a stopped heart; the report initially tried to attribute the arrhythmia to cardiovascular disease, but Elvis' own personal physician has stated that Presley had no such chronic problems at the time. Most of Elvis' many health problems can and have been traced back to rampant abuse of prescription drugs. Elvis had visited his dentist on August 15th to have a temporary crown put in; it has also been suggested that the codeine the dentist gave him that day resulted in an anaphylactic shock that assisted in his death. (He had suffered allergic reactions to the drug previously.)

Eminem's Story

The singer said he became so hooked on prescription medicines that he also overdosed on the heroin substitute methadone. He inadvertently took a massive dose after being given a handful of tablets by a pal. Eminem, 36, said: “My doctor told me those mysterious new pills were methadone. “Had I known it was methadone, I probably wouldn’t have taken it. But, as bad as I was back then, I can’t even say 100 per cent for sure. “My doctor told me the amount of methadone I’d taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin. “Even when they told me I had almost died, it didn’t click.” The American star, whose eagerly-awaited new album is called Relapse, was also addicted to the sedative Valium. In August 2005 he canceled a European tour, citing exhaustion. Two days later his record company revealed he was being treated for dependency on sleep medication. Although he soon weaned himself off he suffered a relapse. He told yesterday how he searched his home in desperation for drugs or medications containing powerful narcotics, such as cough syrup NyQuil.

Eminem — real name Marshall Mathers III — said: “I’m ransacking my house, finally find something in the basement, in a little napkin, 7½ Vicodin (pain killers) — the big, extra-strength ones — and a few Valium.” The star added: “Rap was my drug. “It used to get me high, then it stopped getting me high. “Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that. Now rap’s getting me high again.”

Michael Jackson - The King of Pop