A follow up on Tom Petty's death. This statement is quoted from CBS News:
The Los Angeles County coroner confirmed Friday that Petty's cause of death was a "multisystem organ failure" due to mixed drug intoxication, including fentanyl, oxycodone, temazepam, alprazolam, citalopram, acetylfentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl.
His family said Petty suffered from "many serious ailments" including emphysema, knee problems and a fractured hip.
This was said to be "an accidental drug overdose as a result of taking a variety of medications". It sounds like he was self medicating to avoid feeling the pain of a broken hip. Good grief!
No one should be self-medicating with mixtures of fentanyl, oxycodone, temazepam, alprazolam, citalopram, acetylfentanyl and (pause for breath) despropionyl fentanyl! This isn't the first time we've read about a well-known musician who has done this. And it certainly isn't the first time that some one, well-known or not, has died because of "accidental drug overdose" while misusing these potent, highly addictive, and potentially lethal pain killers. It's terrible to witness this epidemic of deaths.
These drugs should not be on the streets, nor should they be casually prescribed by physicians. The pharmaceutical companies who willingly mass produce these drugs and look the other way as they get widely misused should be criminally prosecuted.
