The Death of Michael Jackson: When a Cure Turns to Poison - Essay Example

It was not the first time a shinning celebrity died due to drug overdose. To name a few: Elvis Presley – the King of Rock and Roll – died from an overdose of methaqualone and codeine fatally combined with other twelve prescription drugs he took on regular basis (McCarthy, 2004, p. 142); Heath Ledger – The Dark Night fame – died of an accidental overdose of two powerful narcotics: oxycodone and hydrocodone, which was further worsened by a combination of other prescription drugs; Marilyn Monroe died of fatal overdose of barbiturates; John Belushi – the famous comedian – died from a lethal combination of heroin and cocaine; Anna Nicole Smith – the famous Playboy model and actress of her own reality show, The Anna Nicole Smith Show – died of cocktail drugs, primarily Chloral Hydrate and several benzodiazepines (Bunn, 2010).

Such are tragic and senseless deaths of rare talents, of rare beauty, of rare geniuses, as these could have been prevented, yet the number of similar cases continues. The death of Michael Jackson once again headlines the fatal effect of irresponsible use of drugs, as Dr.Sathyavagiswaran’s – the Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner (Parry, 2009, p. 7) – report verified his initial findings that the King of Pop’s death was due to the lethal combination of acute intoxication with the anesthetic drug propofol and a high dosage of the sedative drug, (lorazepam) Ativan, and other conditions contributing to death: ‘Benzodiazepine effect’ (Fricker, 2009, p.

9; Brown, 2009) – the group of drugs more commonly known as ‘Benzo’, with four of them: alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan).