posted
"Heath Ledger is the exception here, because, from all witnesses and all reports, he was not a drug abuser. The drugs he had were legal prescriptions -- not a trace of the illegal stuff in his dwelling place, the police have affirmed. His death seems to have been a genuine accident."
Heath Ledger was most certainly a drug abuser, even if his prescriptions were legal. They came from different doctors, and were contra-indicated for use together. Beyond that, a long clip of him detailing his drug addictions while snorting cocaine in an LA apartment was not released on the networks, but did circulate on the internet anyway.
This death may have been accidental, but it was not, as you say "a genuine accident." Ledger had been flirting with death for a long time, and mixing the kinds of drugs he did. This statement was printed on CNN.com, from the NYC medical examiner.
quote: "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine," the office said in a short statement.
"We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications."
Hydrocodone and oxycodone are painkillers. Diazepam is an anti-anxiety drug commonly sold under the brand name Valium; alprazolam is also an anti-anxiety drug sold under such names as Xanax. Temazepam, sold under such names as Restoril and Euhypnos, is a sleeping agent. Doxylamine, an antihistamine, can be obtained over the counter as a sleep aid.
I point this all out because we should not minimize or rationalize his death, or euphemistically treat it as an accident. This is not the kind of accident that could happen to just anyone, and we should be aware of why that is.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
There are commercials running on TV now in the USA to remind people that the most common source of drugs for kids to abuse comes from your medicine cabinet. Who is going to miss a pill or two (or four), here and there, now and then.
And kids have no framework for taking these legal prescription drugs. They mix and match them willy-nilly with no concern for potential interactions. Because, as any kid will tell you, they simply can not die...until the do, of course.
The legality of the prescriptions is independent of the illegality of the abuse of those prescriptions.
Now, I will express a small level of doubt here. All these drugs may have been in his system, but how many of them were from having taking the drug that day/night, or to what degree were these just residual levels reflecting having taken the drug days or weeks prior?
Many drugs are detectable in your blood for weeks after you took them. Anyone who is required to take a drug test knows you can't take drugs yesterday and expect to pass a drug screening today.
So, we have reports that traces of these drugs were present, but no indication of when those drugs were likely to have been taken.
None the less, he was clearly taking way too many drugs in way too many combinations to be safe.
Too many people think prescription drugs are safe because they are prescription drugs. But the exact opposite is true, these drugs are specifically prescription drugs because they are not safe.
posted
But let's not forget the fact that kids are abusing NON-prescription drugs as well. You can't even buy a decent decongestant these days without going into a store, showing your ID, and filling out a stupid form... and then you can only buy a months supply at a time. Actually, for my Zertec that USED to be perscription (so I got 60 pills for a month), I can only buy them now in 24 count, so I have to go several times a month... grr...
Whatever happened to the good old days of sneaking into your parents liquor cabinet? ;-)
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
That is more because of meth labs than teenagers, although he two are, sadly, not mutually exclusive of each other.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
