The medical examiner’s results have been reported regarding Prince’s official cause of death. After weeks of waiting for the toxicology tests to be completed, The Associated Press has reported the findings:
UPDATE: Via Associated Press (5 pm CST):
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prince died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid painkiller that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin, autopsy results released Thursday show. According to a one-page report released by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, Prince administered the drug himself, but the date he took it was unknown. The office said it has completed its death investigation and had no further comment.
Fentanyl is a synthetic drug that is partly responsible for a recent surge in overdose deaths in some parts of the country. Because of its risks, it is tightly controlled by the Food and Drug Administration. More than 700 fentanyl-related overdoses were reported to the [DEA] in late 2013 and 2014.
A legal drug that’s more powerful than HEROIN?!! Why in the hell is this even on the market?!!
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CHICAGO (AP) — Tests show that Prince died of an opioid overdose, a law-enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday. The 57-year-old singer was found dead April 21 at his Minneapolis-area estate. The official, who is close to the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The findings confirm suspicions that opioids played a role in the musician’s death. After he died, authorities began reviewing whether an overdose was to blame and whether he had been prescribed drugs in the preceding weeks.
AP didn’t specify exactly which opioid Prince overdosed from, but as was reported weeks ago, Prince was rumored to have been taking some type of prescription opioid pain killer, a drug he allegedly started taking to treat the chronic pain he’d been having in his hips for many years.
Via The Associated Press:
Prince’s death came less than a week after his plane made an emergency stop in Moline, Illinois…The Associated Press and other media reported, based on anonymous sources, that Prince was found unconscious on the plane, and first responders gave him a shot of Narcan, an antidote used in suspected opioid overdoses.
At least two doctors’ names have come up in the death investigation being conducted by the Carver County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, a family practitioner, treated Prince twice in the weeks before his death and told investigators he prescribed medications for the singer. The medications were not specified in a search warrant for the Minnesota hospital that employed Schulenberg at the time.
Schulenberg saw Prince April 7 and April 20 — the day before his death — according to the warrant. Schulenberg’s attorney has declined to comment on the case. Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California addiction specialist, was asked by Prince’s representatives on April 20 to help the singer. Kornfeld sent his son Andrew on a redeye flight that night, and Andrew was among the people who found Prince’s unresponsive body the next morning, according to Kornfeld’s attorney, William Mauzy.
The younger Kornfeld, who is not a doctor, was carrying buprenorphine, a medication that can be used to treat opioid addiction by easing cravings and withdrawal symptoms, Mauzy said, explaining that Andrew Kornfeld intended to give the medication to a Minnesota doctor who had cleared his schedule to see Prince on April 21. Mauzy has refused to identify that doctor. Schulenberg is not authorized to prescribe buprenorphine.
We’ll keep you all posted as more info is released…there may be more to this. Long live Prince and his beautiful legacy and may he forever rest in peace.
