An official in Minneapolis said there are still many open questions about Prince’s death: Specifically, did Prince die from a painkiller overdose?
A law enforcement official said Thursday that an investigation was exploring Prince’s history of prescription drug use. Strong pain relievers like Percocet, the investigator told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, are possibly involved. The official also reportedly confirmed an incident TMZ reported in the wake of Prince’s death: Prince collapsed on a plane six days before the he died. When medical help arrived, they gave the unconscious musician a Narcan shot — a drug administered when opioid overdoses are suspected.
Should the investigation ultimately show that Prince overdosed, it will be another link in the grim chain connecting fame and fatal drug use — though risk of death is, historically, higher than average for younger artists. A retrospective report of 1,000 music stars, published in the British Medical Journal in 2011, concluded that “risk of death for famous musicians throughout their 20s and 30s was two to three times higher than the general UK population.” Prince was 57.
When the rock-n-roll lifestyle crystallized in the latter half of the 20th century, so did its lethal side effects: At 39 years old, jazz singer Dinah Washington became one of the first pop artists to die from drug use in 1963. Between 1970 and 1971, barbiturates claimed Jimi Hendrix and Canned Heat guitarist Alan Wilson while heroin did the same to Janis Joplin and, possibly, Jim Morrison — all at the age of 27 — planting the seeds of the so-called 27 Club. At the end of 1980, this timeline of drug and alcohol overdoses ran from Joplin to punk rocker Sid Vicious to Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham.
After Michael Jackson died in 2009, a toxicologist reported high levels of a drug in the singer’s body. The intoxicant was different: Not alcohol or the usual recreational drugs, but propofol. Propofol is an anesthetic administered through IV, infrequently seen outside of the surgery room — Jackson acquired it from his physician, Conrad Murray, who said in an investigation that the pop star referred to the drug as “milk.” During Murray’s trial, in which a jury found the doctor guilty of involuntary manslaughter, testimony revealed the physician was with Jackson “at least six nights a week,” reported the New York Times in 2011. The “insomniac singer” implored Murray “to give him drugs powerful enough to put him to sleep,” wrote the Times.
According to Prince’s brother-in-law, the “Purple Rain” singer also suffered from insomnia. Given the early nature of the investigation, however, any speculation between Prince’s possible Percocet use and alleged lack of sleep would be premature; what’s more, Percocet is not prescribed as a sleeping pill. Instead, as manufacturer Endo Pharmaceuticals notes on its website, the mixture of acetaminophen and oxycodone — a synthetic form of the active ingredient in opium — is “indicated for the relief of moderate to moderately severe pain.” Oxycodone targets the same receptors in the brain as morphine, dampening the rate at which neurons transmit pain and other signals.
Opioids are a great leveler, however, felling ordinary people, not just stars. Although they can be used safely, Percocet and other opioids have come under heavy scrutiny in recent years. In 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six out of 10 fatal overdoses involved opioids, which include heroin and synthetic painkillers like oxycodone. “It has become increasingly clear that opioids carry substantial risk but only uncertain benefits – especially compared with other treatments for chronic pain,” Thomas R. Frieden, the CDC’s director told reporters in March, reported the New York Times.
