Drug use allegations
The website TMZ, which broke the news of Jackson's death, writes that Jackson used a number of aliases to secure prescription drugs, including Omar Arnold and Jack London, and the names of one of his bodyguards and an office manager. One doctor would allegedly call the pharmacy to say that Jackson was coming to get Demerol, and the pharmacy would fill the prescription with the patient's name blank.[25]
Jackson is said to have used a powerful anesthetic, propofol (Deprivan), the painkillers Demerol and Oxycodone (OxyContin),[17] as well as Xanax, an anxiolytic, and Zoloft, an anti-depressant.[1] Other drugs named in connection with him are Prilosec, Vicodin, Paxil, Soma, and Dilaudid.[16] Police found several drugs in his home, including Diprivan, some with labels made out to Jackson's pseudonyms, others with no labels at all.[26] A 2004 police document prepared for the 2005 People v. Jackson child-abuse trial alleges that Jackson was taking up to 40 Xanax pills a night.[24]
Deepak Chopra, an internist and endocrinologist who was a friend of Jackson's for 20 years, expressed concern that Jackson appears to have been given no naloxone, a drug used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose. "With a weak pulse", he said, "the first thing I would have given him was Narcan [the drug's trade name]. Its effect would have been dramatic and Michael might be alive today. No one has been able to answer why he had so many drugs in his house, but the attending physician did not have ... [naloxone] in case of an overdose. I don't understand it."[27] Chopra criticized what he saw as "enabling" by some Hollywood doctors. "We put drug pushers in jail but give licenses to doctors to do the same thing", he said. "I know personally that they write multiple prescriptions and they even use false names ... This cult of drug-pushing doctors, with their co-dependent relationships with addicted celebrities, must be stopped. Let's hope that Michael's unnecessary death is the call for action."[27]
The Jackson family tried to stage an intervention in February 2009, when he was living in Las Vegas. Janet Jackson and some of her brothers traveled to his home, but security guards were ordered not to let them in. He also refused to take calls from his mother. "If you tried to deal with him," one source told CNN, "he would shut you out. You just wouldn't hear from him for long periods." The family denied the intervention rumors when People published them at the time.[28]
Eugene Aksenoff, a Russian doctor who directs the International Clinic in Tokyo which Jackson visited several times during tours or visits to Japan, stated that in March 2007 Jackson asked him for stimulants to treat a sore throat and cold-like symptoms. Aksenoff refused, warning Jackson that the drugs were addictive and potentially life-threatening, especially if combined with other drugs. Aksenoff observed that Jackson was taking a large amount of drugs to treat chronic fatigue, fever, and insomnia and to whiten his skin. Aksenoff suspected that Jackson's chronic ailments were caused by taking excessive steroids to whiten his skin.[29]
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