Drug cocktail that may have killed Jacko
Updated on 27 June 2009
Science correspondent Tom Clarke explains the effects of the painkillers that have been linked to Michael Jackson's death.
The LA coroner's office has confirmed Michael Jackson was taking some prescription drugs, but would not give any specific details.
But reports claim that the star was addicted to at least two powerful painkillers, and was being given daily doses.
Michael Jackson had a history of health problems, and he is reported to have relied, heavily at times, on two particular painkillers Demerol and OxyContin. His relationship with Demerol rumoured to stretch back to the 1980s.
Demerol is better known here in the UK as Pethidine, a painkiller once commonly given to mothers during labour. It's an injectable drug similar to morphine. But it's thought to be even more addictive as injecting Demerol can give a euphoric rush. It dulls pain by depressing the central nervous system.
OxyContin is taken in tablet form. It is one of the most widely used and abused pain killers in the world, and nowhere more so than in the United States where millions of prescriptions are written for it each year. Illegal use in poor communities has earned OxyContin the nickname 'hillbilly heroin'. Like Demerol it's similar morphine
If Jackson was using both drugs there was always the danger of a lethal combination. Taken together the nervous system effects of morphine-like drugs do not always add together, they can multiply. Overdose or a combination of doses can slow or stop breathing and that, in turn, starves the heart of oxygen leading to a heart attack.
There are also unconfirmed reports Jackson used the painkiller Vicodin and anti-anxiety pill Xanax at times of stress. Although different they too target the nervous system. And taken in wrong combination have a sad history of their own. It's thought that otherwise safe doses of OxyContin, Vicodin and Xanax taken together by actor Heath Ledger last year led to his accidental overdose and death.
