Celebrities and Drugs

A Knight’s Tale

The recent demise of Heath Ledger has created a huge stur across the world; not because death by drugs is an uncommon concept in Hollywood, but because Ledger was an aspiring young actor- who unfortunatly experienced his first and last encounter with drugs before his sudden death.

A spokesperson for the medical examiner has reported none of the following were taken in excess - two sleep medications, two anti-anxiety drugs and two narcotic painkillers. Despite this report, the ME ruled this accidental death as a result “of abuse of prescription medications.” Sadly, Ledger is only the latest celebrity to die after mixing prescription meds.

 But experts from addiction specialists to pathologists point out that prescription abuse is not just narrowed down to celebrities: In fact, after the report was released many people admitted to having some or all of those drugs in their medicine cabinets, left over from previous prescriptions.

 Concern for prescription drug abuse has led the drug control policy agency to participate in a $30 million ad campaign to raise awareness about the problem. The launch was delayed in light of Ledger’s death (the White House didn’t want to appear to “opportunistic,” according to spokeswoman Dana Perino), but if you watched the Super Bowl, you may have seen the commercial showing a drug dealer complaining that he can’t compete with kids getting their drugs for free out of their parents’ medicine cabinets. Many, including Ledger’s parents, hope that lessons will be learned from this tragedy. In a statement, the family said, “Heath’s accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage.”

 Were you surprised that too many prescription drugs led to Health Ledger’s death? Were you aware of the risks of combining multiple prescription drugs?-
in saying all this I’m not saying avoid all medical help, but abuse of prescription drugs can be lethal.  

 Many people may not realize that mixed together, sleep aids, anti-anxiety drugs, anti-depressants and narcotic painkillers can be deadly. In Ledger’s case, the combination of drugs probably caused his central nervous system to slow down so much that his heart stopped beating and lungs stopped. It’s unlikely that any doctor would prescribe all six of these drugs to the same patient, but nowadays it’s not difficult to obtain prescriptions from several different doctors. Unless you tell your doctor what other drugs you’re taking, it’s difficult for him or her to anticipate potential complications.

 Some use prescription drugs to get high because they are so widely available, and much easier to get than illegal class A drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Aside from this, many parents may not know that among teens, prescription drug abuse ranks ahead of all illegal drugs except for marijuana according to a report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released two days after Ledger’s death. The agency noted that, “Teens are abusing prescription drugs because many believe the myth that these drugs provide a ’safe’ high.” That may be a common misconception among the young and the old. Even though a drug may be prescribed by a physician, taking it in the wrong way or in excess can be fatal.