Britney's Mom Alleges Manager Controlled Singer With Drugs

Lynne Spears says Britney's manager forced the star to take a risky drug mix.

ByABC News
February 9, 2009, 3:29 PM

Feb. 6, 2008 — -- The combination of prescription drugs that Britney Spears' mother claims were ground up in the singer's food was a risky mix that could cause hysterical outbursts, agitation, creepy hallucinations, even a stroke, medical experts told ABCNEWS.com.

"Grinding up medications without medical direction that's dangerous," said Dr. Joshua Prager, director of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Pain Syndromes (CRPS) at UCLA Medical Plaza. "Drugs have very different ways of getting into the bloodstream when you crush them up. Nobody should be messing with drugs without a physician's supervision."

In court documents requesting that the singer's self-described manager Sam Lutfi be ordered out of Spears' house, Lynne Spears said Lutfi was slipping ground-up pills in her daughter's food to keep her quiet and at one point Lutfi told Lynne Spears that Britney had to take "10 pills a day."

The drugs mentioned in her deposition, Seroquel and Risperdal, are anti-psychotics used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The known side effects of the drugs that Lynne Spears alleges were given to her daughter may also help explain some of the singer's recent bizarre behavior.

Lynne Spears described arriving at her daughter's Los Angeles home Jan. 28, two days before Spears was forcibly hospitalized. She said that she found Lutfi in charge and the entertainer confused.

"Mr. Lutfi drugged Britney, he has cut Britney's home phone lines and removed her cell phone chargers," Lynne Spears wrote in a court declaration, "He yells at her, he claims to control everything Britney's business manager, her attorneys and the security guards at the gate."

Doctors say that taking a combination of anti-psychotic drugs like Risperdal and Seroquel is common, but in high doses can cause heavy sedation.