Michael Jackson took 10,000 pills during the last 6 months of his life (update)

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The more details emerge about Michael Jackson’s life over the last few years, the more shocking his pill problem becomes. While it was obvious to everyone that he was sickly, it doesn’t seem anyone knew just how bad his drug addictions were. Most of the gossip was always about one mysterious illness after another. In fact, it seems Jackson was probably making himself physically ill from all the pills he took – over 50 a day.

The National Enquirer reports that Jackson took over 10,000 during the last six months he was alive, and their sources say he was, “literally living on drugs.” Police found over 30 different medications in Jackson’s home.

Michael Jackson ingested an astounding 10,000 pills in the last six months of his life! That’s more than 50 pills a day.

The music icon was taking more than 30 different types of drugs “for a variety of real and imagined” problems, according to police sources close to the official investigation – who have disclosed a list of those drugs to the Enquirer.

While a “large quantity” of Diprivan was recovered, “there were also countless vitamins, over-the-counter sleep aids, weight-loss pills, energy pills and supplements of all kinds” the close source told the Enquirer.

Syringes and intravenous solutions were also found at Jackson’s rented mansion, according to the source. “Investigations have learned that bags of IV fluids were used twice daily,” said the source.

“Confidential informants have disclosed Jackson began taking meds intravenously for faster absorption and less impact on his liver and kidneys, which had already been damaged by excessive drug use.”

“Michael Jackson’s drug hoard was extremely lethal – enough to kill a person many times over,” declared Dr. Mary Ann Malloy, a nationally known cardiologist based in Chicago who never treated Jackson.

“Whatever doctors prescribed these drugs for him – or procured them for him illegally – would certainly be wide open to charges of malpractice and even criminal manslaughter.”

[From the National Enquirer, July 20, 2009, print ed.]

It sounds like such a miserable way to live. Who knows if Jackson was making himself sick due to side effects from all the medications he was taking, or if most of them were due to real diseases. Like the Enquirer’s source said, Jackson’s pills were for real or imaginary illnesses. I wonder how many were prescribed for real problems and how many imagined? I can think of very few conditions that would warrant that much pill popping, if for no other reason that at some point the pills can obviously interact. And he was probably living with a host of uncomfortable side effects.

It’s hard to hear much that’s shocking about Michael Jackson, but 10,000 pills in six months is mind blowing. I’d think his pill schedule would have ruled his life. Hopefully the police will be able to track down all of Jackson’s doctors. Not only could some of them have played a role in his death, but I would think anyone who’s prescribing drugs to someone already on so many pills shouldn’t be practicing medicine.

Update by Celebitchy: CNN is reporting that Jackson “took more than 10 Xanax pills a night, asking his employees to get the prescription medicine under their names and also personally traveling to doctors’ offices in other states to obtain them.” They also describe how his family tried to stage an intervention:

Years later in 2006, Jackson was in Las Vegas trying to jump-start his career. Deal maker Jack Wishna, who was helping the singer land a long-running show in Vegas, told CNN the singer would appear “drugged up” and “incoherent” — often so weak and emaciated he had to use a wheelchair to get around.

The comeback shows were canceled because of Jackson’s condition, Wishna said.

Around that time, sister Janet Jackson was so worried about Jackson that she tried to stage an intervention with assistance from her other brothers, two sources close to the Jackson family told CNN Wednesday.

Jackson reportedly ordered his security guards not to let the family members in. He also refused to take calls from his mother, Katherine, CNN has learned.

At the time, the Jackson family released a statement to People magazine denying the alleged intervention. But Janet Jackson was not among the signatories.

Along with the police investigation, which is being aided by the state attorney general’s office and the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office has also drawn up a list of Jackson’s doctors and is trying to talk to them to determine what drugs they may have prescribed him.

Among them are Dr. Arnold Klein, Jackson’s dermatologist, and Dr. Conrad Murray, his cardiologist.

Klein told CNN Wednesday that Jackson was addicted to drugs at one point but had kicked the habit.

Murray, who has been interviewed by police, has repeatedly said he will withhold comment until the coroner’s tests are back.

[From CNN]

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30 Responses to “Michael Jackson took 10,000 pills during the last 6 months of his life (update)”

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  1. KDRockstar says:

    With lupus, he may have been in tremendous pain. We will never know all of the truth, I am afraid.

  2. Fiestarter says:

    All I can say, is that everyone needs to let this man rest in peace. It doesn’t matter now how many pills he took in teh last six months because he is dead. What needs to be done is a major sweep of all these Dr. Feelgoods, who indulge these celebrities with granting their every drug wish. It is murder, when you know a man is as addicted as he apparently was, to continue to write scrips for them. It is totally illegal for Propofol to be used outside of a hospital. These Dr.s need to lose their licenses, be charged and punished accordingly. People are always whining about illegal drugs, well prescription drugs kill more people than the illegal stuff and it is all due to Dr.s handing out scrips just because somebody feels bad and it seems like the best, easiest fix. Like with the Anna Nicole Smith case, the people who were around Jackson and who helped him along in his addiction, need to be punished and then maybe, just maybe this prescription drug overdose nonsense will stop or at least get under some type of control.

  3. Dan says:

    Celebitchy, I forgot to thank you for turning me on to those Vanity Fare articles about Jacko.. Amazing stuff. I have no sympathy for Michael Jackson.

  4. MsTriste says:

    I disagree vehemently with those who think we should “let him die in peace” – I think it’s imperative that the truth is known about people who are role models so that they can be used as a cautionary tale. This is not a road anybody should walk down, whether they are a star or a mortal, and if anybody can learn that you can die or be miserable from drug addiction, that’s an important message.

    And I also disagree with those who want to blame the doctors. If an addict wants a drug, they will find it, doctors be damned. Obviously MJ went to great lengths to get his drugs and it is highly doubtful that many, if any doctors, were aware of the extent of the alleged abuse.

    And this should also be a cautionary tale to those who think only illicit drugs are bad.

    If all this is true, MJ was a very unhappy and unhealthy person for whatever reason, and it is too bad those reasons were not addressed while he was alive. Trying to blame others for his death is not helping anybody, least of all him.

  5. Joe says:

    I attend a meeting that is a 12 step program for prescription pills. It is very common for prescription pill addicts to take over 100 pills a day. Some function for months if not years despite that horrifying dosage.

    Prescription pill addiction is an epidemic of tragic proportions that society is just now realizing. Until there is more public awareness, look for the number of PP addicts continue to rise.

  6. AlaskaJoey says:

    I’m just flabbergasted at the sheer amount of time this pill consumption must have taken each day. He must have spent an hour a day just taking pills, if you add all the time together.

  7. MM says:

    Where is PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?? Adult people abuse drugs to feel better and they use their friends, partners, family members to get drugs. They know drug abuse could be lethal, but they refuse medical intervention, rehab, detox… What can you do with 40 or 50 y. old drug addict??

  8. Diana says:

    The truth will out. Jackson’s autopsy will show his life in drugs.

    The Vanity Fair articles by Orth are well written and certainly catalog his history of behavior.

    I’m reading Posner’s book, Motown, which has several pages on the abuse Michael suffered at the hands of his father, and a religion he was forced to belong to whose tenets, (no holidays, no, birthdays, anti-gay), left him emotionally crippled.

    I’m saddened MJ didn’t get counseling he needed.

  9. dubdub2000 says:

    Though there is no doubt MJ suffered from a host of physical, mental and emotional issues that were not helped by his pill addiction, I’m not sure that we will ever know the scale of what actually went down in the last 6 months of his life as only he would know actually what he really was or wasnt taking.
    However, I just wanted to point out that if you were to look around my apartment you would find scores of half started vitamins, medication etc… From previous treatments finished or started and not finished or forgotten (lol) That does not mean I’m taking all the pills at the SAME time! Most days if I can remember to take my daily multivitamin it’s already a miracle!It’s just I dont like to throw meds away when not needed anymore because who knows, until they go bad you might need them again and who the hell wants to go pay the doctor so that he call tell you what you already know.
    Then again maybe HE was getting his load on. The thing though, and obviously Im just speculating here, being that he was in a desperate search for something to battle his chronic insomnia + lupus, i can see how he would have collected a pretty much complete pharmacopia of products over the last year, just trying different stuff, mixing and matching dangerously, looking for a solution.
    Poor MJ. He’s definetly better off now, but I think he’d be heartbroken if he saw what was going on with his kids now (all the heartless speculation about who the biological parents are, like it matters…) and the real threat of Joe Jackson actually geting his nasty little mits on those poor kids. urgh.

  10. Mary Jane says:

    Just because he HAD those medications, that does not mean he took them ALL. When my mom was dying of cancer, she had alot of drugs around (some pretty powerful ones too) and many she did not take. I am sure that with that many drugs around, there were many staff members and other in the house that “helped themselves.” And if MJ was really using staff members’ names, then a refill is very easy to get by just showing ID. Just saying…

  11. t-t says:

    i hope he can rest in peace….although we need to know who those shady-ass doctors are and make them pay…for that reason alone this should be investigated

  12. Kati says:

    My mother died a week before Michael from this same shit. It had been going on for about 10 years and these doctors kept prescribing whatever she wanted. She went to different doctors so they couldn’t keep track of what was she was taking. I’ve been so sad for Michael’s family. It’s so hard because at some point you just have to tell them what they are doing is wrong and you can’t involve yourself until they get help, but once they are gone, it’s their kids and their family that have to deal with it. It’s hard to get through to a person when they are in such denial. My mom and Michael were both 50 born and died a week apart.

  13. Diablo says:

    Kati, I appreciate you commenting. Me and my family have as well struggled with my mother’s addiction to prescription medication. It has gotten to the point that she visits multiple doctors (behind our backs) using whatever information she can give doctors to get the medication she wants. For people that don’t understand how difficult this can be… It is difficult to even get her doctors (the ones that have never dealt with her before) to even discuss her manipulation with us because it opens them to liability. The doctors don’t even know that she is shopping around or all the things she is on. My mother finally screwed up enough (showed up to the wrong office for a certain prescription) and got placed on a state wide list….so she travels out of state to get her drugs. To be honest…I don’t understand why more people don’t abuse prescription drugs since they are so much easier to obtain than illegal ones.

    Of course the MJ situation is different. Obviously there were arterial motives of those around him that profited on keeping him drug to the gills. His sad tale reminds me a lot of Howard Hughes. But even with the support necessary, many addicts are not successful fighting something so easily obtained. Sorry about the long soapbox rant…

  14. wow says:

    Does it even matter now being that he is dead? I think not. The time this would have really mattered is when he was alive and something could have been done inhis best interest to help instead enablers helping themselves and their own agenda’s.

    Every doctor, friend or hanger on who enebled him in any way needs to go on trial for murder or manslaughter or whatever its called. There are a lot of dirty hands in this and I hope they will have to answer for any part taken in his demise. Even if it is proven for a fact that he injected himself, the people who got these drugs for him should be held accountable in some way.

  15. prissa says:

    This is astounding!! If he really was 5’11” weighing 112lbs why in the world was he taking diet pills? I’ve taken Xanax and the pills i’ve had can be broken into 1/4th peices. I took one whole one was was totally out of it the entire day. I have sympathy for him. I’m almost glad he’s “gone on” because obviously life for him was torture.

  16. Bodhi says:

    Prescription drug addiction is a very serious silent & growing problem in the US. We have developed this culture where, if you feel slightly “off,” you just pop a pill & go on your merry way.

    Patients are happy because they are getting their fix, doctors are happy because Big Pharma wines & dines them and, at least for controlled substances, an in-person appointment is required a few times a year, the insurance companies are making bank & so are the bloody pharmacies.

    People speed up & crash land & it becomes a vicious vicious spiral… Obviously some people really need daily prescription routines to survive, but the US is overly medicated, end of story

  17. stellapurdy says:

    This man had the world at his finger tips. If he had chosen to do better for himself he would have. My mother had rheumatoid arthritis of which my brother now suffers from. She could barely get out of bed most of the time yet she found a way to do it and go to work while taking only aspirin for her pain as that’s all there was at the time. So I’m sorry but I have no sympathy for a man that if he wanted to could have made a better life for himself. He took on the responsibility to raise children the least he could have done was gotten his head straightened out, if not for him but those kids. Say what you want, he may have been a musical genius but he sure as shit was one selfish mofo.

  18. Alexa says:

    Addiction takes over the parts of your brain that help a person make good decisions, use good judgement, etc. Believe me – the addict feels plenty of shame about his behavior. It is hard for outsiders to feel any sympathy for an addict, I understand, but it’s a terribly difficult thing from which to break free.

  19. fight club says:

    why cant the jacksons accept his death as sucide n overdose.

  20. orion70 says:

    KDRockstar, I think he had discoid lupus, which is a milder form of the disease. My mother has it, and has had a lot of health problems, which may or may not be attributed to this, but thankfully daily pain is not a part of her life at all. Mostly discoid lupus manifests itself in skin lesions, and not debilitating pain. Mostly means she has to stay out of the sun, and wear high SPF every day.

    IF this actually was one of the reasons he was getting meds , it would equate to going to the Dr. with a hangnail and coming out with a prescription for Dilaudid.

  21. Magsy says:

    Poor Michael. It’s sad how the last years of his life played out. I hope they go after all the doctors and pharmacies involved. It shouldn’t be so easy for people to over medicate and have access to mass quantities of drugs. Everytime a celebrity dies from drugs there’s a big brohaha for a while and then it all dies down and nothing changes.

  22. Trashaddict says:

    Bodhi, I think you are making some broad and unfair generalizations. Not ALL doctors want to be or in fact are wined and dined by Big Pharma. That is changing. Our hospital will not allow pharmaceutical reps in the clinics any more.
    Doctors are put in a very difficult position today. There are new guidelines for pain control (we are REQUIRED to ask about pain at every visit) and we are alternately accused of catering to drug addicts but not treating legitimate pain adequately. What the hell do people expect in a 20 minute visit? A smart doctor will at least not prescribe narcotics to a new patient without some medical documentation that they have objective reasons for their pain, and also make a call to the patient’s pharmacy and set some ground rules (no filling “lost” prescriptions, occasional drug screens, etc). This kind of caution takes time that administrators and insurance companies are not willing to give the medical profession. We do have to get rid of the bad doctors out there, but these demands are taking their toll on good doctors. They get tired of having to play cop every day and want OUT.

  23. Trashaddict says:

    And by the way, how ironic that the ad below this post is for a diet drug.

  24. karen smith says:

    My question is who made the call and said a man is not breathing? They could have said my friend, boss, co-worker, dad, brother and/or michael jackson is not breathing, come on. He was a good person, from my understanding. He beat his cases, but we still have these negative people with access to tv and radio saying he is guilty. This is your legal system. Don’t hate the system now. Michael Jackson R.I.P. Much Love Always to you and you family.

  25. Sakota says:

    I wonder if his family had anything to do with this. Some parents have their kids diagnosed as mentally ill as to keep them under their psycho thumb.

    It is possible that Mike was drugged by his handlers and kept in a haze except when performing. This man never had a chance.

  26. Stephanie says:

    I think everyone is actin dumb, half of everyone didn’t give a crap about him when he was alive, and a bunch of people said “I hope he dies” and now everyone is crying and gettin’ mad. Well, first off if its/ was his life and people just need to keep out of it. Yeah, he was a great singer/ dancer but he took those meds. and the only person who should be worried about it is his family and not his fans because half of his fans didn’t care when those news channels was talkin about him messin with little kids. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the people caring, but stop makin a big deal out of it. He is dead now, and maybe this is what he wanted, he was probably sick of people tellin untruthful stuff about him!! So really just leave him alone , let him REST IN PEACE!! & leave him alone.

  27. ccoop says:

    Stephanie, go back to the little pink cloud you are obviously living on.

  28. beatrix says:

    i dont know about you guys but for me i am still grieving MJ passed away. in my own “little pink cloud”, he’s actually a beautiful soul of a little boy trapped in insane fame, uncountable amount of money, and bad circle of people. A stolen childhood can indeed devastate somebody’s whole life. Let Michael rest in peace. My heart bleeds for his tortured soul. God rest his soul.

  29. samabong says:

    well I think this news isn’t shocking at all.I’m not a hater or a fan but just looking at his story and how he was showing around it was just obvious to me that he wasn’t in a very happy place.

  30. ccoop says:

    Michael Jackson was an adult and capable of making his own decisions. He had an undeniably horrid childhood but the choice to run his life as a drug user and predator was HIS OWN DECISION. Yes, it is a tragic waste of life and talent. But many many people have overcome unbelievable adversity (abuse, deprivation, poverty, etc.) and have not used it as an excuse for unrestrained excess for the rest of their lives.

    Michael surrounded himself with “bad people” because that’s who he wanted to have around. “Good people” who tried to help him (but who expressed opinions he didn’t like) were pushed away. Michael did this to himself. I am sorry for his children, but I have no “bleeding heart” pity for someone who deliberately chose to destroy himself.