How Prince concealed his opiate addiction
Prince overdosed from fentanyl, a lethal opioid often used to manufacture counterfeit pills that are sold on the black market as painkillers.
Although investigators are yet to find out how he procured them, some light has been shed on his opiate dependency.
Investigators found a substantial number of narcotic painkillers for which he did not have a prescription hidden in over the counter vitamin and aspirin bottles strewn all over his home in Minnesota.
He did suffer from chronic hip pain so the fact that he was using painkillers is not surprising, however as we’ve seen before due to the nature of famous people, their procurement of such mediums often gets messy, leading to highly unfortunate results.
Enter the aides.
A long-time friend and employee, Kirk Johnson is believed to have aided Prince in his procurement of opiates. Investigators found at least one bottle of opiates prescribed in the name of Johnson.
A few weeks before Prince’s death Dr. Michael T. Shulenberg treated Prince for his chronic hip pain. He told investigators that he prescribed oxycodone to the late star on April 14 (a week before the overdose) but put it in Kirk Johnson’s name for the sake of Prince’s privacy.
Shulenberg’s lawyer later did a 180 and asserted that her client “never directly prescribed opioids to Prince, nor did he ever prescribe opioids to any other person with the intent that they would be given to Prince.” This is a clash of statements if ever there was one.
Naturally Kirk Johnson also down played his knowledge of Prince’s painkiller dependency. Investigators found a suitcase labelled “Peter Bravestrong”, an alias used by Prince, containing several prescription bottles in Kirk’s name.
On the day before the singer’s death, Mr. Johnson said he went to pick up three prescriptions for drugs often used to treat anxiety issued by Dr. Schulenberg; according to the court papers, he said it “was the first time he had ever done something like that for Prince.”
Either way, the main objective of the investigation is to find who gave him the fentanyl. Often people want to impress celebrities and give them whatever they desire. And often celebrities do/take things without consulting a doctor. The exact events leading up to Prince’s death are a mystery, but these leads will help us find out how we lost our beloved Prince.
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