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Since Michael Jackson's untimely death, Jamie Lee Curtis has recently opened up about her own addiction to painkillers.
She writes, "I too found painkillers after a routine cosmetic surgical procedure and I too became addicted, the morphine becomes the warm bath from which to escape painful reality. I was a lucky one. I was able to see that the pain had started long ago and far away and that the finding the narcotic was merely a matter of time. The pain needed numbing. My recovery from drug addiction is the single greatest accomplishment of my life... but it takes work -- hard, painful work -- but the help is there, in every town and career, drug/drink freed members of society, from every single walk and talk of life to help and guide." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-lee-curtis/king-of-pain_b_240998.html)
Curtis indeed was a lucky one. Sadly, the death of celebrities due to overdose is not a new trend, but perhaps we are becoming more aware of the irresponsibility of the doctors who are prescribing these drugs to those in Hollywood who are in pain.
Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her bedroom at the age of 36. The drug Nembutal was found in her system. In fact there was so much Nembutal in her system it would have killed 10 people. Elvis Presley was found in his bathroom, lying in a pool of his own vomit. A cocktail of 10 prescribed drugs were found in his system. He was only 42.
More recently, before Jackson, Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment due to an accidental overdose of 6 prescribed medications, which included painkillers, anti-anxiety meds and sleeping pills. He was only 28. Now he is an icon.
But what about the average Joe or Jane from down the block who also play around with pills and one day just don't wake up. Their faces don't get plastered all over the media. Jaime Lee Curtis doesn't plead for donations for drug treatments to combat addiction. The families of these people suffer and mourn in private, probably overwhelmed with an ocean of questions as to how their loved one got their hands on so many prescribed drugs.
We are a pill popping nation and we are losing more people than just a musical genius or brilliant actor.
"The CDC reports that from 1999 to 2004, unintentional poisoning death from prescription drugs sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers grew 84 percent to 20,950 deaths, overtaking cocaine and heroin combined as the leading cause of lethal overdose."
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1998, a report finds that prescription drugs kill about 106,000 Americans each year – that’s three times as many as are killed by automobiles—making prescription drug death the fourth leading killer after heart disease, cancer and stroke." (http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/prescription-drug-deaths-soar.aspx?googleid=29488)
Medication seems to no longer be a last resort type of thing. We are incessantly flooded with advertisements for drugs on a day to day basis. While watching "All My Children" I can see ads for erectile dysfunction, depression, restless leg syndrome, IBS, insomnia and of course, seasonal allergies. It has become common place to medicate and little warning label on a bottle is obviously not cutting it.
While it is not uncommon for folks to get their Valium or Vicoden from a drug dealer, as we have seen from Jackson and Ledger's death, a lot of times these controlled substances are handed to people legally. The anesthetic, Propofol, was found in Michael Jackson's home. A drug that should never be used at home, yet he had it and he had it legally. There is talk now that Jackson's death is being investigated as a homicide. The doctor that prescribed the drug may face criminal charges and in my opinion, he should. The Hippocratic oath swears to "Above all, do no harm." Part of the oath also says, " I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan."
This doctor went against everything he is supposed to stand for, and surely he is not the only one out there doing so. So I'm sure Jackson won't be the last celebrity tragedy we will see, but I'm more concerned about the 106,000 women, men, teens and children who won't get to see another day because of their addiction to masking their pain.
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