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.

Why Would Pop Stars use Steroids?

stars who use PEDs to improve their image

 Doctors are claiming some entertainers believe steroids or human growth hormones have anti-ageing benefits.

The music industry- in its own right is definitely a competitive sport- take 50 cent for example- the g- unit star has taken his brash lyrics and used them against his opposition, targeting the likes of Ja Rule and the Game. But maybe harsh lyrics are just not enough- So how do the stars stay at the top of their game?

Well the answer apparently lies in rejuvenation. According to Albany Times Union, Florida Doctor Gary Bandwein allegedly shipped the goods to 50, Blige and company; steroids or HGH would be shipped for the artists to Long Island chiropractor Michael Diamond, who holds residency at New York gym Clay. Michael Diamond- who had not been charged under any accounts- coincidently is an instructor of anti-aging and longevity medicine at the Manhattan fitness centre. According to the article, experts believe that more entertainers are turning to “the unproven anti-aging effects of steroids.”  

However, to gain the upper hand against his opponents, its hard to think that 50 cent would turn to steroids as a New York newspaper article claimed through sources on Monday. So why would artists like 50 cent, Mary. J. Blige, Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and playwright director Tyler Perry (according to reports) decide to use steroids or human growth hormone? 

Why you ask? According to Dr Thomas Barnes, a Newport Cosmetic surgeon with more than 10 years of experience in the field, HGH, though controversial in some circles, has its benefits. Barnes said when people pass age 30- especially entertainers- life begins to take its toll on people’s complexions. According to Dr Barnes, HGH specifically brings levels of testosterone back up- benefits can include thickening of the hair and skin and “a luster again in the eyes and basically helping the body look more vigorous.”  

Dr. Thomas Perl, a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, begs to differ. Perl is the founder of www.AntiAgingQuackery.com a site launched in 2005 to oppose the rhetoric of steroids and HGH’s benefits. In rare instances, he explained, administering HGH makes sense; he listed short bowel syndrome and growth-hormone deficiency as those exceptions. Overall, however, he calls steroids and HGH cheap gimmicks, fraught with misleading information and too easily available online.   ”The irony is that animal studies show growth hormones actually decrease life span, they doesn’t increase life span,” he said. “It’s all marketing. It’s all a sale.”  

“It is a drug, and it really should be administered by someone who is licensed personnel,” Dr. Barnes said. “It’s easy for a trainer to give it, but when problems start, that’s when the finger-pointing starts.”  

 “Hormones are the darling of the anti-aging industry, because people generally equate the word with youth,” Dr. Perl insisted. “And they think, ‘Take a hormone. Oh, it makes me young again.’  

John Battaglia, an image consultant/ life coach who runs the Rockstar in You and has worked with Justin Timberlake and Usher, said the obsession with youthful images can sometimes counter an artist’s primary goal: a long-term career. ”The music business is a young person’s business, so there’s certainly a premium on appearing young or appearing younger,” he told MTV News. “So certainly people really can do a lot of different things — sometimes going to very extreme measures in their appearance — to be able to give a youthful image.”

performance enhancing drugs approved by ethicist?

disagrees with ethicist

 

Leading ethicists are questioning the value of banning some of the sports drugs listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). It’s a view rejected emphatically by former Olympic champion Linford Christie, who tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in 1999; 100m sprinter Christie, rebutted comments from Julian Savulescu.

 According to professor of applied ethics at the University of Oxford, UK. ‘I think there are good reasons to allow safe performance enhancers such as caffeine or creatine,’ Altitude training and hypoxic air tents (used by Wayne Rooney) are legitimate ways to increase athletes’ red blood cell counts, according to Wada. The agency bans blood-enhancing drugs such as the red blood cell regulating hormone erythropoietin, EPO (Chemistry World, October 2004). Wada’s code is ‘incoherent and unjustified,’ Savulescu said, because EPO, in safe doses, has the same effect on the blood as the legitimate methods.   

Christie said Savulescu’s comments were risky. Humans should accept that some are born faster and fitter than others, he said. Christie said aspiring athletes should be subject to graphic images of the effects of steroids, including shrunken testicles and penises (Christie publicly criticised media attention paid to his tight fitting running attire, leading to his nickname of the ‘Lunchbox’).    

Phil Willis, chair of the committee predicts that gene receptor technology will become the next hot topic in performance enhancing technology. Athletes will attempt to use gene enhancement in the next four or five years, he told Chemistry World. Changes to genes will be harder to detect than drugs, and the detection labs are shifting their emphasis from chemistry to biology, explained Steve Maynard from HFL, one of the UK’s Wada accredited testing labs (Chemistry World, August 2004, p7). ‘We cannot adapt current methods to detect gene doping,’ said Maynard.     

What does this mean for the future of professional sport? Will performance enhancing drugs be detected in future sport competitions?