Sunday 28 June 2009

Michael Jackson - The Effects of Drugs and Facial Surgery

We take the Mail on Sunday. When I opened the paper this morning I read that the Jackson family were getting a "24 hour sober coach" for Michael Jackson. Now not being an American, or involved with the entertainment industry I was intrigued to discover what a “sober coach” is exactly. It turns out that he is a person who accompanies someone who has a drink or drugs problem 24 hours a day and tries to wean them off their habit.

The Jackson family were aware of Michael Jackson’s reliance on prescription drugs, and had hoped that he would voluntarily go into rehab prior to his 50 concert dates in London. This was not to be – Jackson apparently did not recognise his dependency on the drugs, so they tried the next best thing, and that was to hire a “sober coach.”

A Doctor Howard Samuels, the executive director of the “Wonderland Centre”, a £35,000 a month private drugs rehab facility was consulted.







Just to give you some idea of the amount of drugs Jackson was regularly using, this was reputed to be his daily intake:-

Demerol – known in the UK as Pethidine (a morphine related painkiller) Injection twice a day
Vistaral – a painkiller Injection twice a day
Dilaudid – a powerful narcotic 3 mg twice a day
Xanax – an anti anxiety drug similar to Valium 250 mg
Zoloft 100 mg
Ritalin - a stimulant or “upper” 10 mg
Prozac - an anti depressant 20 mg
Prilosec No dosage given







A leading pharmacologist is quoted as saying…..”A combination of antidepressants, anxiety pills, painkillers and stimulants would have left him listless and unresponsive. Some have been associated with serious side effects, including breathing problems and mood swings.

An un named Doctor has crept out of the woodwork to tell of Jackson almost dying of a morphine overdose on the night of Dec 29th 2003, shortly after a disastrous interview with Ed Bradley on American TV, where he nervously tried to defend himself on child sex charges which had been made against him.






The Mail goes into various other aspects of Michael Jackson’s troubled life, between pages 6 to 13 – Eight pages plus the banner headlines on the front page.

To requote my final comment on Friday’s blog – “What a sad way to end a life”, but I ask myself, is a hopeless druggie really worth all that amount of space?











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