From Elvis to Anna Nicole: Jackson Death Latest Celebrity OD Investigation
Conrad Murray joins ranks of docs who treated Elvis, Anna Nicole.
July 28, 2009— -- Michael Jackson is only the latest in a growing line of celebrities to die from misuse of prescription drugs, but the investigations into the others' deaths should serve as a warning to Dr. Conrad Murray and other doctors who supplied the King of Pop with powerful painkillers and sedatives.
Doctors behind the prescription drugs that killed celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole Smith and wrestler Chris Benoit have faced severe legal and professional consequences, accused of feeding their famous patients' addictions.
"Sometimes personal physicians, I think, are grandiose and think they can do more for a celebrity in their home than they really can," said Dr. David Sack, president of Promises Treatment Centers. "So they enter that arrangement with the belief that they have more knowledge or control than they actually have."
The main focus of the investigation into Jackson's June 25 death, reportedly from a mix of painkillers and the powerful anesthetic propofol, has centered on Murray, Jackson's personal physician at the time.
Murray could face manslaughter charges in Jackson's death.
When Heath Ledger died in 2007 from a lethal cocktail of prescribed sedatives, two of his doctors were reportedly cleared of any wrongdoing.
But in March, two of Anna Nicole Smith's doctors pleaded not guilty to eight felonies each for allegedly prescribing thousands of pills to the former Playboy model -- everything from Xanax to methadone.
Smith died in February of 2007 after overdosing in a Florida hotel room.
