Sources Say Michael Jackson was Addicted to Painkillers

Since the King of Pop died unexpectedly last week, rumors have been circulating about the cause of death. When TMZ.com broke the news that Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50, many people assumed he had an unknown heart condition or that he had been wearing himself down while preparing for this summer’s string of concerts. However, medical experts speculate that Jackson died of an overdose of prescription medication as he was reportedly given an injection of Demerol, a strong painkiller, one hour before his death.

Now reports of Jackson’s prescription drug abuse are flooding the media. His former video producer said the pop star had been addicted to Demerol and other narcotic painkillers like OxyContin for more than 20 years. Marc Schaffel, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial, said that close associates of Jackson tried to stage an intervention regarding his addiction in 2003, but that it was derailed due to a world tour.

“Everybody around him knew about it,” Schaffel told ABCNews.com. “He didn’t advertise it to the world, but anybody in his inner circle knew. I was shocked, but I knew it was only a matter of time that something like this would happen,” Schaffel said. “I have said before, that if he continued using drugs at this rate, he’d be dead by the time he was 50.”

Schaffel said Jackson’s addiction to Demerol began as early as 1984 when Jackson’s hair caught fire while during filming of a Pepsi commercial and he suffered burns. He was later treated at the Betty Ford Clinic. In 2002, Jackson was ordered to undergo a medical examination after he failed to appear in court because Jackson said he had a spider bite. Schaffel said it wasn’t a spider bite and that instead, a needle had broken off in Jackson’s leg.

During Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial, the judge ordered prosecutors to return hundreds of items that were not considered contraband—this included syringes, Demerol, and prescriptions for various antibiotics that were prescribed to other people.

Demerol is as addictive as morphine and can cause seizures and tremors. It is extremely dangerous when used in large doses or combined with alcohol, other opioids, or other drugs that depress the central nervous system. A well-known side effect of Demerol and other pain medications is respiratory depression, according to Sanjay Sethi, chief of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at University at Buffalo in New York.

“A large dose, especially if given intravenously, can act on the respiratory center of the brain, reduce respiratory drive, cause cessation of breathing, leading to cardiac arrest because of lack of oxygen,” Sethi told ABCNews.com. “Antidotes are available, but they have the best effect only when used prior to cardio-respiratory arrest.”

A senior law enforcement official also told ABC that Jackson was “heavily addicted” to Demerol and received “daily doses” of OxyContin. Jackson even wrote and performed a song called “Morphine” in 1997. It has also been widely reported that Jackson abused the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the anti-depressant Zoloft in the months before his death.

Jackson’s family lawyer, Brian Oxman, compared the pop star’s death to that of Anna Nicole Smith, who died of a prescription drug overdose in 2007. “This family has been trying for months and months and months to take care of Michael Jackson,” said Oxman. “The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him.”

While Schaffel disagreed with this statement, saying that Jackson’s “regular doctors didn’t give him drugs” and that “90 percent of the people (around him) had nothing to do with the drug use,” Schaffel said that “pseudo doctors” provided Jackson with drugs that were often prescribed to others.

“When you’ve got that kind of money, you can get your drugs,” Schaffel said of Jackson. “We call them Dr. Feel Goods. We tried to intercept and block them, but when you have that kind of money, you can get them on your own.”

However, a lawyer for Dr. Conrad Murray—the singer’s private doctor who reportedly discovered Jackson not breathing and performed CPR until the paramedics arrived—denies that Murray prescribed or gave Jackson Demerol or OxyContin. “Not ever. Not that day,” he told the Associated Press.

Although two autopsies have been completed, the official cause of death could take weeks to be released.