Friday 31 May 2013
Wednesday 29 May 2013
Tuesday 28 May 2013
Monday 27 May 2013
Friday 24 May 2013
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Friday 17 May 2013
Thursday 16 May 2013
Monsanto
Bankers Want You Sterilized. Your Government Wants You To Get Cancer. 4,000 American Children Were Killed So Bankers Could Develop a Cadre of Government Workers Willing To Kill Children.
In 2001 Epicyte Corporation isolated a protein that causes sterility and spliced its gene into corn so that men and women eating the corn would become sterile. They sold that technology to Monsanto and to DuPont. To date No Congressman, No Senator and No Presidential candidate has dared ask Monsanto, DuPont and Epicyte what they are doing with that Genetically Modified corn that sterilizes us and our children.
The world has more debt than at any time in the past 500 years. That means we are headed to the worst Depression in 500 years. Depressions simply put are periods in history when debts are cancelled through massive bankruptcies, unemployment, Austerity and tax increases because we have not yet learned to choose scientific Debt Cancellation instead of all that pain and all those wars.
10% of all American teenagers will have a previously rare liver disease (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD) by the time they reach their 19th birthday. High Fructose Corn Syrup from Genetically Modified corn has been cited as the cause by many scientists. There has been an exponential growth in the consumption of GM HFCS as well as that rare liver disease. Can you estimate what percentage of Americans will be suffering from that previously rare liver disease in ten years?
America today is losing 23 manufacturing plants a day. That is after having lost more than 50,000 manufacturing plants since NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act).
Genetically Modified Organisms in multiple studies have been proven to cause cancer in test animals. GMO food after three generations produces sterile and diseased runts with underweight internal organs.
Only 51% of 2011 college graduates found jobs. Those who took out loans owed an average of $25,000 in student loans and $3,500 in credit card debt.
Polysorbate 80 is a food additive that is destroyed in the stomach during digestion. When added to vaccines as an adjuvant, it causes sterility.
A college graduate with $25,000 in student debts at 10% and $3,500 in credit card debts at 29.9% could pay of those debts over ten years with 120 monthly payments of $442.62 ($330.38 + $92.24). That is hard to do if you have a job at WalMart paying no more than a high school drop out co-worker.
Thousands of Americans who never smoked have developed lung cancer because they were exposed to the SIV-40 virus which was discovered to be in the polio vaccine. SIV-40 received its name because it was the 40th Simian Immunodeficiency Virus to be found in the first polio vaccine.
In Greece the riot police who are paid had to stop a riot from the regular police who were not paid. Doctors and nurses in hospitals have not been paid for months. The Greeks have been told not to default until after the American elections. American banks have sold so many Credit Default Swaps on Greek, Italian, and Spanish debt that is several orders of magnitude greater than the US GDP. You as a taxpayer will soon be asked to pay off more than 200 trillion dollars in CDS. You paid the bankers debts in the past but I think you have reached the limit of your ability to pay. It will be time for Hyperinflation to cancel the bankers debts along with your pensions, savings and paychecks unless you consciously choose scientific Debt Cancellation.
Judyth Vary Baker was a child prodigy who was able to induce cancer in mice better than the federal government with its millions of dollars. She was sent to New Orleans to develop cancer viruses to be put into American vaccines. Lee Harvey Oswald, an ex-Marine and a former CIA asset, was assigned to protect her and to act as a liaison with Dr Mary Sherman. American vaccine makers never use a clean needle when they can find a dirty one.
James Turk says that Germany’s 3,400 tons of gold is gone. It was all leased out multiple times and nobody knows where it is.
Babies in the first year of life receive no benefit from vaccination. Yet American law requires babies be given a Hepatitis vaccine that gives them from what is known to be a harmful dosage of mercury. This vaccine is alleged to protect infants against until age 12 disease that they could contract while engaged in risky sexual behavior and taking illegal injectable drugs like heroin. Infants are being greatly harmed because we have a government that wants to harm babies.
Jim Willie has told us that 40,000 tons of allocated gold that is supposed to be numbered and held in customer accounts is missing. When this story and the story about Germany’s missing gold goes viral even if 1/2 of 1% of customers and Central banks demand their physical gold as Venezuela did, gold will up parabolically. The dollar will go in the opposite direction.
Routine childhood vaccinations increase asthma and allergic reactions. They are linked to learning disabilities and autoimmune disorders. Autism used to be so rare it was unknown to most Americans in 1950.
The US Congress has appropriated funds to have 30,000 drones most of which are armed to keep American in line. The Department of Homeland Security has ordered 1.5 billion 40 caviler hollow point rounds. The US has over 800 FEMA and National Guard camps to send dissidents. The US Army has a manual entitled FM-3-39-40 Internment and Resettlement. The manual describes these as forced labor camps. Inmates are to be indoctrinated by US Army officers.
Michael Snyder tells us that: Since January 2009, the “labor force” in the United States has increased by 827,000, but “those not in the labor force” has increased by 8,208,000. This is how they have gotten the unemployment numbers to “come down”.
In the past two months we have seen more layoffs than at anytime in the past two years. This is despite the fact that Obama has asked defense employers to violate federal law and not give workers advanced warnings. Corporate earnings are down at a time when we are told we need to raise taxes and cut spending. Roosevelt tried that in 1938 and the unemployment rate shot back up to 17%.
Almost one in four American workers has a take hone pay at or below the federal poverty level. To say you are employed today is not the same as in 1970 when wages were high enough to pay a mortgage, buy a car and feed your children three times a day every day of the week.
A lawsuit filed in federal court by the Spire law group estimates the total cost of bank and mortgage fraud at 43 trillion dollars. Do you understand that the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration and the laws that repealed the Bill of Rights are there to make sure you can never demand the bankers return the 43 trillion dollars the bankers stole from you?
Do you understand that bankers want you sterilized so the New World Order has fewer people to resist? Do you comprehend how evil and mercenary your government is that wants you to get cancer and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on treatments designed to fail before you die? Do you understand that 4,000 American children were killed in scientifically unnecessary medical experiments just so the bankers could develop a cadre of government workers willing to kill children?
Have you finally realized the depth of their hatred for us? They want even the best of us to die.
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/bad-signs-on-the-nwo-highway-of-death/ — with Fay Perrotte.
Wednesday 15 May 2013
Monday 13 May 2013
Friday 10 May 2013
Thursday 9 May 2013
Bourgeois vs. the proletariat jail system
There are two criminal justice systems in this world the one where the rich and famous who get the best of what the criminal justices system has to offer while the minority and the poor suffer because they cannot afford it as u go through this article if u get caught in this and you not rich and famous you are in for a ride of your life
In the usa this group are clearly define As one example of this dichotomy, for over a decade suburban jails in Southern California have been renting upscale cells to affluent people convicted of crimes in Los Angeles County. These pay-to-stay programs, also called self-pay jails, cost wealthy prisoners between $45 and $175 a day and include such amenities as iPods, cell phones, computers, private cells and work release programs. Some even let prisoners (who are referred to as “clients”) bring in their own food while some prison are begin place in to private hand which owner has guaranteed 90 present occupancy. With the violence that occur in prison there is no hope for u especially minority and the poor
This nicer-jail-stay-for-pay scheme not only allows the rich and famous – as well as the more modestly affluent – to avoid the brutality, squalor, abysmal medical care and other unpleasant conditions typical in public jail systems. It also highlights the inequities of a two-track system of justice in the world in which the wealthy enjoy privileges and perks behind bars while the poor are resigned to less comfortable and more dangerous conditions of confinement.
The disparity in criminal justice system begins with arrest. The poor are often arrested during SWAT-type raids in the middle of the night that leave their front doors, and possibly their entire homes, in a shambles. The affluent are frequently allowed to “turn themselves in,” usually accompanied by their attorney. This assumes that people with means and influence are arrested in the first place, of course.
For example, when musician Robert Ritchie (known as Kid Rock) was stopped by a Vanderbilt police officer in Nash-ville, Tennessee in February 2005, the officer chose not to perform a sobriety test and instead issued a warning. He also got Kid Rock’s autograph. “We don’t have any way of knowing, had the field-sobriety test been done, how that would have come out,” said Vanderbilt Police Captain Pat Cunningham. At the time of the traffic stop Kid Rock was wanted for punch-ing a D.J. at a strip club earlier that night.
After the proletariat are arrested with force they can spend ages behind bar without trial while the rich barely spend any time behind bar because they have proper lawyer and have the financial capital to pay any bale money that the magistrate can think of and while u at it can u think of any power full person who has spent time I prison for a crime they did not commit
Indigent prisoners are represented by overworked and underfunded public defenders with huge caseloads, or court-appointed attorneys who may or may not be experienced or competent in criminal cases. Wealthy defendants can hire private counsel or even a team of lawyers. In the O.J. Simpson murder prosecution, Simpson’s “dream team,” headed by late attorney Johnnie Cochran, cost an estimated $3-6 million.
The one place in the criminal justice system where there was at least an appearance of equality among the economic classes was incarceration. Jail was jail for both the rich and poor. Now even that bastion of equal treatment has fallen with the rise of pay-to-stay jails for well-off prisoners who can afford them.
“It really exemplifies the two-tier nature of the criminal justice system, where you have one system of justice for the poor and politically unconnected and another system of justice for the wealthy and politically connected,” said PLN editor Paul Wright.
Pay-to-Stay Jails at Hotel Prices
Theoretically there are only two situations that call for incarceration: a criminal conviction that results in a prison or jail sentence, or because a defendant awaiting trial is considered a flight risk or danger to public safety. In the latter regard, the rich and famous are given the benefit of the doubt as to their level of “risk” while the poor are almost always consid-ered risky. After all, they have fewer resources and thus less to lose if they jump bail.
Even when wealthy offenders have to do jail time, in Southern California they can ameliorate their conditions of con-finement by renting cells at pay-to-stay facilities. In Los Angeles and Orange Counties, the cities of Alhambra, Anaheim, Burbank, Culver City, Fullerton, Glendale, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, La Verne, Montebello, Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, South Bay and Torrance offer pay-to-stay jails, some of which amount to incar-ceration vacations.
Pasadena has the largest program with 2,226 prisoners paying to stay at the city’s jail in 2007, which generated about $234,000. The jail has advertised its program with a pamphlet that echoes holiday resort language. “Serve your time in our clean, safe secure facility! ... We are the finest jail in Southern California,” the brochure proclaims. Pay-to-stay prison-ers in Pasadena have access to an exercise bike and can watch DVD’s. The cost? Just $135 a day.
The tiny four-bunk jail in La Verne, where actor Christian Slater served 59 days in 1998 for battery and drug offenses, might vie for Pasadena’s claim of having the finest pay-to-stay facility.
The La Verne jail charges work release prisoners $45 per day; those who serve “straight time” pay only $7.50 a day but have to perform work duties such as cleaning or laundry. In both cases the per diem rates are in addition to a one-time $270 administrative fee. Pay-to-stay prisoners are allowed to have food delivered – a major perk for anyone who has had the misfortune of sampling typical jailhouse fare.
Santa Ana refers to its $82-a-day self-pay jail as “the most modern and comfortable facility in the region.” The jail hosts “a full range of alternatives to traditional incarceration” – with “traditional” presumably referring to conditions experi-enced by the vast majority of poor prisoners who can’t afford to shell out $82 a day. The Santa Ana jail offers flexible work release schedules for prisoners who work weekends and nights, plus “24-hour on-site medical staff.” Additionally, the fa-cility has “helped clients with sentences from other counties as well as other states.” So long as they can pay, of course.
When Pasadena began to offer pay-to-stay jail beds in the early 1990’s, it realized the need to advertise the program. “Our sales pitch at that time was, ‘Bad things happen to good people,’” said Pasadena Police Department spokesperson Janet Givens. Representatives from the jail went to community venues such as Rotary Clubs looking for potential “fee-paying inmate workers” who would pay to stay at the facility. “People might have brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. who might have had a lapse in judgment and do not want to go to county jail,” Givens noted.
That attitude is a marked contrast to more traditional jails that hold detainees unable to make bond, much less pay thousands of dollars a month for safer and more comfortable conditions.
Indeed, most prisoners are portrayed by law en-forcement and corrections officials as incorrigible, dangerous criminals who deserve punishment – even pre-trial detain-ees who have not been convicted. Apparently that assessment changes when wealthy prisoners are able to pay for their room and board.
Driving the demand for pay-to-stay cells (for those who can afford them) are the deplorable conditions in the Los An-geles County jails, where, according to a Michigan Law Review article, “about 21,000 detainees are held in filthy cells so overcrowded – four men in a cell built for two, six to a four-man cell – that federal judge Dean D. Pregerson observed in 2006 inmates must stay in their bunks at all times because there is not enough room for them to stand.” Gang activity is rampant in the LA jails, as is gratuitous violence that has led to a number of prisoner-on-prisoner murders.
In 2006, funding cuts forced Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to reduce staff until there was only one guard per 100 prisoners. The national average is one guard per 10 prisoners. More than 85% of the jail population is composed of pre-trial detainees, most being held on non-violent drug and property charges. Instead of protecting them from violence – a nearly impossible task due to overcrowding and understaffing – guards tell frightened new arrivals they have to “Be a man. Stand up and fight.” Given a choice, and sufficient funds, is it any wonder that well-off prisoners would pay to stay elsewhere?
“It seems to be a little unfair,” said Mike Jackson, training manager for the National Sheriff’s Association. “Two people come in, have the same offense, and the guy who has money gets to pay to stay and the other doesn’t. The system is supposed to be equitable.”
Celling Celebrities in California
Proponents of self-pay jails often say they are only used for first-time, non-violent offenders. A review of the celebri-ties who have graced such facilities belies that claim. In 1998, for example, Christian Slater spent 59 days of a 90-day sentence at the La Verne jail for battery and drug violations. He reportedly beat his girlfriend and kicked a police officer down a flight of stairs. Also, rapper and music producer Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, served five months in the Pasadena jail on a probation violation in 1994 after pleading no contest to DUI.
He was on probation for battery after breaking another rap producer’s jaw. While at the Pasadena jail, Dr. Dre was allowed to film a music video with late rap-per Tupac Shakur.
Other high-profile prisoners who have paid to opt out of the dangerous and crowded Los Angeles County jails include actors Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Collins, and former Orange County Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo.
Collins spent a total of 96 hours at the $85-a-day Glendale jail for a 2008 DUI conviction, while Sutherland served 48 days at Glendale, also for DUI. Sutherland was not in the work release program and thus had to work in the jail’s kitchen and laundry details, but he had a single cell. “After Kiefer and Gary, we got inundated with calls, so we actually have peo-ple lined up through the summer,” said Glendale jail administrator Juan Lopez.
Yet things do not always go smoothly for prominent prisoners even after they’re accepted by a pay-to-stay jail. In Jaramillo’s case, the prosecutor objected to his plan to serve his one-year sentence at the Fullerton jail because that would allow him to use a cell phone and personal computer, plus bring in his own food.
“We certainly did not envision a jail with cell phone and laptop capabilities where his family could bring him three hot meals,” said a spokesperson for the Orange County district attorney’s office. “We felt that the use of the computer was part of the instrumentality of his crime, and that is another reason we objected to that.”
Fullerton officials denied that laptops were allowed, but said the jail did permit the use of cell phones. “If you’re going to be in jail, it’s the best $75 per day you’ll ever spend in your life,” said Fullerton Police Lt. John Petropulos. “You don’t have to worry about getting beat up by a guy with a shaved head and tattoos.” The implication, of course, is that poor prisoners who can’t afford pay-to-stay jails should be worried about such violence. Jaramillo ended up serving his one-year sentence for perjury and misuse of public funds in the Montebello jail’s self-pay program. He later pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and money laundering in connection with a corruption investigation into former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. [See: PLN, Nov. 2009, p.38; Feb. 2009, p.1].
A private company called Correctional Systems, Inc. (CSI), which was acquired by private prison firm Cornell Compa-nies in 2005, runs pay-to-stay programs at city jails in Alhambra, Baldwin Park and Montebello, California, and previously operated a self-pay program in Seal Beach.
“The benefits are that you are isolated and don’t have to expose yourself to the traditional county system,” said CSI spokeswoman Christine Parker. “You can avoid gang issues. You are restricted in the number of people you are encoun-tering and they are a similar persuasion to you.” Presumably, “similar persuasion” means they are wealthy enough to af-ford rent-a-cells and thus avoid the violence and unpleasant conditions that poor prisoners have to endure while serving time in the county jail system.
The affluent simply want to be incarcerated with those of their own kind, according to Parker. But what does that mean? Jails reserved for prisoners who are rich? Fellow celebrities? The politically-connected? Is it morally or ethically defensible to allow different forms of imprisonment as punishment for crime based on a person’s wealth or social status, regardless of their “persuasion”?
This corruption of the notion of equal and impartial justice has extended, in some cases, to corruption among employ-ees at self-pay jails. In June 2007, the city of Seal Beach terminated its contract with CSI after three guards were charged with stealing a prisoner’s Sony PlayStation and falsifying documents to cover-up the theft. In 2004 another CSI guard, Alonso Machain, was charged with helping former Seal Beach jail prisoner Skylar Deleon – a former child actor – brutally murder a couple for their $440,000 yacht. [See: PLN, Feb. 2008, p.26]. Deleon and an accomplice were sentenced to death in April 2009; Machain received a 20-year, 4 month sentence in June 2009.
Seal Beach officials said they terminated the contract with CSI due to poor financial performance. They didn’t aban-don the pay-to-stay concept, though – the city now operates the program itself, renting out 30 jail beds at rates up to $120 a day.
Special Treatment for Special People
Jail experts say they aren’t aware of self-pay jails outside California. “I have never run into this,” said Ken Kerle, editor of the American Jail Association’s bimonthly magazine. “But the rest of the country doesn’t have Hollywood either. Most of the people who go to jail are economically disadvantaged, often mentally ill, with alcohol and drug problems and are func-tionally illiterate. They don’t have $80 a day for jail.”
While it may be true that pay-to-stay programs are unique to California, affluent and celebrity prisoners are treated with deference in regular jails, too. This is even the case in Los Angeles County’s infamous jail system.
The luxury suite at the Los Angeles County jail is Room 7021, known to guards as the “hospital” because it’s in the former clinic, though some started calling it “The Heisman” after O.J. Simpson spent the better part of a year there. Room 7021 has housed its fair share of celebrities, including actors Robert Downey, Jr., Sean Penn, Robert Blake and Kelsey Grammer; musicians Tommy Lee of Motley Crue and Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots; and comedian Richard Pryor. In fairness, it has also held some of the most infamous prisoners in Southern California, such as “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez and Kenneth Bianchi, one of the Hillside Stranglers.
According to a November 2002 article in the New York Times, Room 7021 offers a luxurious (by jail standards) 80 square feet of white-painted private living space, a steel door with a 9-by-9-inch window, a private phone, and that most precious of commodities for prisoners – solitude.
“This is not a hotel and we don’t give celebrities special treatment,” claimed Captain Richard Adams, supervisor of the 7,200-bed Men’s Central Jail, where Room 7021 is located. But isn’t it special treatment to provide a safe, secure, single-man cell to celebrities and other fortunate prisoners while the rest of the jail’s population is held in overcrowded conditions where violence is a constant threat?
Adams defended segregating high-profile prisoners, saying, “The guys in here will prey on them and eat them alive, so off to protective custody they go. I don’t want anyone getting hurt in here.” Of course by that he really means he doesn’t want anyone famous or rich getting hurt at the jail – since non-celebrity prisoners are regular victims of violence and sometimes-fatal medical neglect. [See, e.g.: PLN, Jan. 2010, p.40; Jan. 1, 2009, p.27; March 2008, p.40]. In fact, in a six-month period from October 2003 to April 2004, five prisoners were murdered in the Los Angeles County jail system. [See: PLN, April 2005, p.16].
Other affluent and well-connected prisoners have been afforded different types of preferential treatment by Los Ange-les officials. When Mel Gibson went on an anti-Semitic rant during a DUI arrest on July 28, 2006, details about his deroga-tory remarks were removed from the original arrest report and placed in a supplemental report not available to the media.
Three Sheriff’s Department employees were disciplined for violating policy during Gibson’s arrest. They didn’t take his palm print when he was released, failed to have him sign a notice-to-appear form, and drove him to a tow lot to get his car. Gibson spent about 8½ hours in jail before making bond; he was later sentenced to three years’ probation and or-dered to pay $1,400 in fines.
The Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review investigated allegations of Gibson’s preferential treatment by Sheriff’s Department staff, and summarized its findings in the agency’s annual report released in December 2007.
“When dealing with celebrities, law enforcement officers must walk a fine line between improper preferential treat-ment and legitimate, necessary adaptation to the challenges posed by the famous,” the report concluded.
Sometimes the line isn’t so fine. Wealthy socialite Nichole Richie was released only 82 minutes after her arrival at Los Angeles’ Century Regional Detention Facility in August 2007, where she was to serve a four-day sentence for driving un-der the influence of drugs. She admitted to using marijuana and Vicodin, a prescription pain killer, but never saw the in-side of a jail cell. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Kerri Webb said Richie “was released early due to overcrowding in the jail system. This is standard procedure for nonviolent offenders.” Webb did not disclose how many non-wealthy, non-celebrity prisoners spent such a short time in jail.
Not to be outdone, actress Lindsay Lohan served just 84 minutes at the same facility on November 15, 2007, after pleading guilty to two cocaine-related charges and no contest to reckless driving and two counts of DUI. The Sheriff’s De-partment denied any special treatment. She had been sentenced to one day in jail, three years’ probation and 10 days community service, and ordered to attend an alcohol abuse program. After Lohan failed to participate in the program, in-stead of being revoked her probation was extended another year.
In May 2006, actress Michelle Rodriguez, who starred in “The Fast and the Furious,” “Resident Evil” and “Avatar,” and the TV series “Lost,” received a 60-day sentence for violating probation due to a DUI charge. She had been placed on three years’ probation several years earlier after pleading no contest to hit and run, DUI and driving with a suspended li-cense. Rodriguez was released from jail after serving just four hours and 20 minutes of her two-month sentence.
“Needless to say, our prosecutors are not happy about this,” said a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s office. “But the sheriffs have a policy to let some nonviolent offenders go early, in part due to jail overcrowding.”
Rodriquez violated her probation again in September 2007 for failing to complete community service work. The court sentenced her to 180 days in jail, and found her to be ineligible for work release or house arrest. She spent just 18 days at the Century Regional Detention Facility before being released on January 9, 2008, again due to overcrowding.
“The sheriff supports, obviously, the desire to have inmates serve their full sentence,” but the county’s single women’s jail was “bursting at the seams,” a Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said. Evidently, though, the sheriff doesn’t support his desire to have celebrities serve their full jail terms enough to make them do more than a fraction of their sentences.
A well-publicized case of special treatment involved millionaire socialite Paris Hilton, who was released to house ar-rest in June 2007 after serving only three days of her 45-day sentence for a suspended license offense while on three years’ probation for reckless driving. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca ordered her early release due to an unspeci-fied medical condition – although the jail could apparently accommodate non-celebrity prisoners with medical conditions. Indeed, the Office of Independent Review noted that “it is extremely rare for the Department to release someone from jail early due to medical issues.”
Sheriff Baca denied any special treatment. “My message to those who don’t like celebrities is that punishing celebri-ties more than the average American is not justice,” he remarked. County officials noted that nonviolent female prisoners serve only a small portion of their sentences due to early release policies.
Regardless, a Superior Court judge ordered Hilton to return to jail; she ended up serving 23 days of her 45-day sen-tence and was released on June 26, 2007. She was housed in a 12-bed “special needs” unit separate from the jail’s other 2,200 prisoners, and issued new jail uniforms that had not been previously worn (purportedly because the facility didn’t have any existing uniforms in her size). Hilton was also allowed to make a late-night phone call from the jail to TV host Barbara Walters.
Preferential treatment was extended to Hilton’s parents, who were allowed to cut in front of hours-long visitors’ waiting lines, and the visitation area was closed to other prisoners and their families while the Hiltons visited. A spokesman said it was normal for high-profile prisoners to visit when the visitation room was closed during lunchtime. It was later reported that Hilton’s grandfather, billionaire William Barron Hilton, had donated $3,000 to Sheriff Baca’s election campaign.
“This is L.A.,” noted Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore. “The mayor, the City Council and other elected officials all have people in show business who donate to their campaigns.”
At least Hilton didn’t receive special treatment in one area – she had to eat the same meals as other prisoners. “The food was horrible. It was jail food; it’s not supposed to be good,” she stated. “Lunch was basically a bologna sandwich. They call it mystery meat. It’s pretty scary. Two pieces of bread and some mayonnaise.”
Orange County, California has also provided preferential treatment to celebrity prisoners. For instance, Roger Avary, movie director and co-author of the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film Pulp Fiction, was sentenced to a year in jail for killing a friend in a car accident while driving drunk in January 2008. Prosecutors had requested a six-year sentence.
Upon reporting to jail on October 26, 2009, Avary was immediately placed in a program that allowed him to work dur-ing the day and report to a furlough facility at night and on weekends. He posted tweets describing his supposed time in jail until a blogger questioned how he was accessing Twitter while incarcerated.
Avary was moved to the Ventura County Jail on November 25, 2009 after his placement in the furlough program be-came known, due to “security issues.” He presently remains at the jail, where he is serving the rest of his one-year sen-tence for gross vehicular homicide and DUI.
Amenities for Favored Few in Arizona
Special treatment for celebrities extends beyond California to neighboring Arizona, where Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the infamous self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” has proven to be not-so-tough on famous prison-ers. When Grammy-winning singer Glen Campbell received a 10-day sentence in June 2004 for extreme DUI and leaving the scene of an accident, he didn’t stay at the Maricopa County Jail’s infamous Tent City, where prisoners wear striped uniforms and pink underwear, are fed green bologna sandwiches and live in harsh conditions in open-air tents.
Instead, Campbell served his time at an air-conditioned facility that guards call the “Mesa Hilton.” He was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours a day on work furloughs. While incarcerated he had access to his cell phone, a guitar and a thera-peutic mattress, and was given a private cell. Perhaps in gratitude for such leniency, Campbell agreed to perform a 30-minute concert for 1,000 prisoners at Tent City and mugged with Arpaio for members of the press. “They put me up to this,” he said jokingly ... or perhaps not so jokingly.
Also, in May 2003, Sheriff Arpaio allowed Mandie Brooke Colangelo, daughter of sports celebrity Jerry Colangelo (former owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks), to serve an 11-day DUI sentence at the Mesa Hilton instead of the county’s Estrella Jail, which has been described as a “hellhole.” Colangelo was allowed her own food and could use a cell phone, and left for up to 12 hours a day to work and care for her children. Eight months later her father sponsored a major fund-raising event for Arpaio’s re-election campaign, attracting hundreds of influential donors and raising $50,000 for the sheriff.
Similarly, Arpaio allowed Joseph Deihl II, the son of a wealthy business executive, to serve his 15-day sentence at the Mesa Hilton in January 2004. Deihl had been convicted of solicitation of prostitution, and his family donated $11,700 to Arpaio’s re-election campaign while the case was on appeal. Deihl was allowed to leave the facility from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. to work, and reportedly brought his own food and a cell phone to the jail. [See: PLN, March 2007, p.14].
When former basketball star Charles Barkley had to serve three days for drunk driving in March 2009, he didn’t get the five-star treatment at the Mesa Hilton. However, he did get his own private tent in Tent City and his meals were deliv-ered to him. Barkley’s sentence started at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday when he reported to jail. He was allowed to leave on Sunday from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m., then left on Monday at 8:00 a.m. and did not return. Thus his 10-day sentence, which had been reduced to 3 days by the court, was further cut to 36 hours. Barkley gave an inspirational talk to other prisoners during his brief stay at Tent City, with Arpaio at his side. Ironically, Barkley had endorsed Arpaio’s autobiogra-phy twelve years earlier.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson had to serve his sentence for felony cocaine possession and misde-meanor DUI at the Tent City jail, too – all 24 hours of it. Although he faced more than 4 years in prison, Tyson spent only one day at the jail in November 2007; he also received three years’ probation and was ordered to perform 360 hours of community service. He was kept in a separate area of Tent City apart from other prisoners and met with Arpaio for a photo op. Tyson did have to wear a striped uniform and pink underwear, pink socks and pink handcuffs – a small price to pay for serving one day behind bars on a felony drug charge despite being a repeat convicted felon.
Paying-to-Stay at Home
The East Coast has its own version of pay-to-stay: well-to-do prisoners stay in their own homes instead of jail if they can afford security guards to watch over them. When 70-year-old former NASDAQ chairman Bernie Madoff was facing a lengthy prison sentence for defrauding billions of dollars from investors in a massive Ponzi scheme, legitimate questions were raised as to whether he was a flight risk and should be denied bail.
Regardless, Madoff was allowed to stay out of jail under house arrest in his $7 million Manhattan penthouse, so long as he footed the bill for around-the-clock private security guards to both protect him from harm and prevent him from flee-ing. Madoff was also required to post bond, wear an electronic monitor and surrender his passport.
The security firm that provided Madoff’s “bail monitoring,” Casale Associates, was founded by former New York police detective Nicholas Casale – who, incidentally, had been fired from his high-ranking security position at New York’s Metro-politan Transportation Authority in May 2003 after being accused of misleading investigators in connection with a corrup-tion probe.
Madoff eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced on June 29, 2009 to 150 years in prison – an unusual outcome for someone so wealthy, but then the extent of his crime was unusual, too. Estimated actual losses for the individuals and organizations defrauded by Madoff were $18 billion. The JEHT Foundation, a major funder of criminal justice reform ef-forts, had to shut down due to Madoff’s scam. [See: PLN, June 2009, p.34].
A similar stay-at-home bail monitoring arrangement was allowed in the case of Marc S. Dreier, a New York attorney who stole $700 million from clients and investors in an elaborate fraud scheme. Dreier was released from jail and placed on house arrest in February 2009 after he agreed to pay $70,000 a month for full-time live-in guards from Pathfinder Con-sultants International, a private security firm. Dreier’s family co-signed a $10 million personal recognizance bond and paid for the guards. He had to remove all cell phones, computers, knives and potential weapons from his home, visitors were pre-approved and pre-screened by court officials, and he was required to wear an electronic monitor.
There was also the 2007 case of Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani, a New York millionaire couple charged with en-slaving and torturing two Indonesian domestic workers. According to prosecutors their crimes involved “incomprehensible brutality and violence and inhumanity,” and constituted “modern day slavery.” Although initially incarcerated, they were released on $4.5 million bail with the condition that they post private guards inside their home.
When reviewing the Sabhnani case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recognized the implications of such house arrest arrangements. “The government has not argued and, therefore, we have no occasion to consider whether it would be ‘contrary to principles of detention and release on bail’ to allow wealthy defendants ‘to buy their way out’ by construct-ing a private jail,” the court wrote. See: United States v. Sabhnani, 493 F.3d 63 (2d Cir. 2007).
When asked about his role as a “bail sitter,” Ed Stroz, a former FBI agent and co-founder of security firm Stroz Fried-berg LLC, which replaced Casale Associates as Madoff’s private guard detail, was unequivocal. “The client is the court,” said Stroz. “This is not a valet service.
This is like jail outside.”
Addressing the same question, Nicholas Casale wasn’t as sure. “It’s a complex issue,” he stated. “Would you, as a bail guard, reprimand the man who signs your paychecks? Lock him in a bathroom? Tackle him if he ran out the door?”
Former FBI agent and Pathfinder president Robert M. Hart made the astonishing comment that house arrest is as bad as being locked up. “If anyone believes it’s better to be at home than at [a federal jail], he’s never been at home with armed guards in his living room 24 hours a day. You can’t go out, you’ve got no access to computers and you’re living in earshot of someone paid to watch your every move,” he explained.
Hart’s statement begs the question of why clients pay so much for his company’s bail monitoring service if it is no bet-ter than being in jail. Perhaps because it is, of course, much better to be safe and secure in your own home, preparing meals in your own kitchen and sleeping in your own bed with your lover than it is to be in an overcrowded, dangerous jail with terrible food and a small cell with a steel bunk.
There are many ethical and moral implications concerning pay-to-stay jails and in-home bail monitoring for affluent of-fenders who can afford such services. Taken to the logical extreme, should we let rich prisoners build personal private prisons so they can serve their sentences in relative comfort?
More Privileges for the Privileged
There are many other examples of wealthy and celebrity offenders whose experiences with the criminal justice sys-tem smack of favoritism.
Consider radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who was investigated in 2003 for illegally obtaining prescription drugs, in-cluding oxycodone. He acknowledged that he had an addiction to pain killers and entered a rehab program. A warrant was issued for Limbaugh’s arrest in April 2006 on a charge of doctor shopping for prescription medication; according to his medical records, he had obtained 2,000 painkillers from four doctors over a six-month period.
Limbaugh turned himself in to the Palm Beach County Jail in Florida and was released on $3,000 bail about an hour later. Under a settlement deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the charge if he complied with the terms of the agreement for 18 months. Those terms included not owning a gun, submitting to drug tests, continuing to participate in substance abuse treatment, and paying $30,000 to cover the cost of the doctor-shopping investigation. Poor defendants who can’t afford high-priced attorneys to negotiate such lenient deals instead face long terms of incarceration.
On June 30, 2008, billionaire investment banker Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to felony charges of solicitation of pros-titution and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. Girls as young as 14 were brought to his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, where they would strip to their underwear and give him erotic massages while he was nude. Accord-ing to a probable cause affidavit, he masturbated during the massages, used sex toys on the girls and sometimes had intercourse with them.
Epstein accepted an 18-month sentence as part of a plea agreement, and a federal investigation was dropped. He served approximately one year in the Palm Beach County Jail before being released in July 2009 to spend another year on house arrest. Epstein’s legal team included former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr and renowned attorney Alan Der-showitz.
Actor Charlie Sheen was arrested in Aspen, Colorado on December 25, 2009 following a domestic violence incident involving his wife that resulted in one misdemeanor and two felony charges. Despite it being Christmas Day, when most courts were closed, Sheen posted $8,500 bond and was released from the Pitkin County Jail within 8 hours. When con-tacted by PLN, jail officials denied he had received special treatment.
Sheen, whose real name is Carlos Estevez, quickly checked himself into rehab. He agreed to plead no contest to a misdemeanor offense on June 7, 2010 in exchange for a 30-day sentence with work release. That plan hit a snag, how-ever, because Sheen reportedly objected to the jail’s no-smoking rule. Also, Pitkin County Jail administrator Beverly Campbell objected to his placement in the work release program, saying the actor was ineligible for that program even though it had been approved by prosecutors and the sheriff. Sheen’s attorneys are now trying to renegotiate the plea deal down to probation in lieu of incarceration.
Not that serving time in the affluent-friendly resort town of Aspen would be so bad. According to news reports, the Pit-kin County Jail allows male and female prisoners to mingle together in shared living areas, and on Christmas Day, when Sheen was arrested, the jail served prime rib for lunch and Cornish hen for dinner.
Cameron Douglas, son of actor Michael Douglas, was arrested on federal drug charges in July 2009 when he was busted with a half-pound of meth. Although initially placed on house arrest, he was jailed after his girlfriend tried to bring him heroin.
Cameron was sentenced on April 20, 2010 to five years in federal prison plus $300,000 in fines. While that sounds like a stiff sentence, it was only half the ten-year term required under mandatory minimum sentencing laws. His sentence was reduced because he had cooperated with law enforcement officials, though the fact that his famous father, his equally famous grandfather, actor Kirk Douglas, and his stepmother, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, all sent letters to the judge requesting leniency probably didn’t hurt either. Cameron is serving his sentence at FPC Lewisburg in Pennsylvania – a minimum-security camp with no perimeter fence.
When former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was initially sent to prison on May 25, 2010 to serve an 18 month-to-five-year sentence for trying to avoid $1 million in court-ordered restitution in an obstruction-of-justice case, he was housed in an air-conditioned room with a private shower in the medical unit at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center.
War-den Heidi Washington, who knew Kilpatrick from the time they worked at the state Capitol together, said he was isolated from other prisoners for “management reasons,” adding, “it makes things run more efficiently, more calmly and more smoothly to keep him separated.”
An anonymous guard who contacted the Detroit News claimed Kilpatrick was being treated “like a rock star.” Prison officials denied the allegations. About two weeks after Kilpatrick reported to prison, the Department of Corrections rec-ommended him for a boot camp program that would make him eligible for release on parole in 90 days. The sentencing court rejected the boot camp recommendation.
Well-connected Washington, D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff received a 70-month federal prison sentence in March 2006 after pleading guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges. His sentence was reduced to four years for cooperating in a federal investigation that resulted in other convictions and guilty pleas, including those of former U.S. Dept. of Justice deputy chief of staff Robert Coughlin (sentenced in November 2009 to one month in a halfway house, three years’ proba-tion and a $2,000 fine) and former Ohio congressman Bob Ney (who served 17 months of a 30-month prison sentence).
Abramoff was released from FPC Cumberland, a minimum-security facility, on June 9, 2010 after serving 43 months. He reported to a halfway house in Baltimore, Maryland where he was supposed to remain until he completed his sentence in December. Instead he was released to home confinement after spending only a few days at the halfway house. He is presently working at a pizzeria.
Another example of justice for the rich and famous is Noelle Bush, daughter of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who was sent to a court-ordered rehab program in February 2002 following her arrest on a felony charge of attempting to use a fake prescription to buy Xanax.
Noelle was ordered to spend 10 days in jail in Orange County, Florida for contempt of court after she was found with crack cocaine at the rehab center. However, she was not charged with possession of crack, a felony offense.
When millionaire business mogul Martha Stewart was sentenced in July 2004 to five months in federal prison plus two years’ supervised release following her conviction on charges of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction, she served her time at FPC Alderson, a fenceless prison known as “Camp Cupcake.” After her release on March 4, 2005 she spent 5 months on house arrest at her $15 million estate in Bedford, New York. She described home confinement at her mansion as “hideous.”
In January 2008, Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne (Dwayne Carter) was charged with four felonies in Yuma, Ari-zona when marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and a handgun were found in his tour bus. He was released on $10,185 bond 8 hours after his arrest and allowed to travel out of state. Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to the charges on June 22, 2010 – via video from Rikers Island Jail in New York, where he is serving one year on an unrelated gun charge – and is expected to receive probation as part of a plea agreement.
Singer Chris Brown turned himself in to Los Angeles police in February 2008 and was charged with felony assault and making criminal threats for hitting, choking and biting his girlfriend, R&B singer Rihanna. Brown pleaded guilty to the fel-ony assault charge on June 22, 2009. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, six months of community work and do-mestic violence counseling, and was allowed to serve the sentence in Virginia where he resides.
PLN previously reported preferential treatment given to rapper Foxy Brown (Inga Marchand) at Riker’s Island when she was serving a one-year sentence in 2007-2008 for violating probation in an assault case. Brown was allowed to par-ticipate in a magazine interview and photo shoot, and wore designer clothes while in jail. She served 8 months. Sepa-rately, a catered bar mitzvah ceremony was performed at the Manhattan Detention Complex for the son of prisoner Tu-via Stern, who was facing charges related to a $1.7 million financial scam. The event included sixty guests, a singer and a band, and visitors were allowed to keep and use their cell phones in violation of jail policies. [See: PLN, Feb. 2010, p.24].
And the list goes on.
Pay-to-Stay Jails for the Rest of Us
The flip side of pay-to-stay jails for wealthy prisoners is requiring poor defendants to pay daily fees for the privilege of being housed at regular lock-ups. In contrast to self-pay programs for the rich, such fees are imposed on impoverished prisoners who remain in jail because they can’t afford to make bond. In part driven by budget shortfalls, some jails are seeking to recover the costs of incarceration from all prisoners whether they can pay or not. [See: PLN, April 2008, p.1].
For example, jails in Douglas County, Oregon and Warren County, Kentucky charge prisoners $20 a day, while Springfield County and Klamath County in Oregon charge a $60 per diem jail fee. If prisoners can’t pay while incarcerated they receive a bill after they’re released, which can be turned over to a collections agency.
The Kane County jail in Illinois imposes a sliding scale of $20 to $100 a day depending on a prisoner’s income. At the aptly-named Purgatory Correctional Facility in Washington County, Utah, prisoners are charged $45 per day – though they get a 50% discount if they pay their bill in full when they are released.
“It’s really a drop in the bucket in comparison with the total cost of operating the jail,” said Springfield City Council President Dave Ralston. “But anything is better than nothing.”
“They’re publicity stunts,” countered PLN editor Paul Wright. “They recoup very little money in the real world, but it makes politicians look tough on crime and it gives the illusion to the public that they’re ‘doing something.’”
In perhaps the most extreme case to date, the Sheriff’s Department in Hillsborough County, Florida filed a lawsuit against former prisoner Aaron Brookins in May 2010 to recover $60,550 in costs and booking fees. He had served 1,200 days at the county jail.
In some cases it probably costs more to try to collect fees from ex-prisoners than the amount of money actually col-lected. There are also the questions of whether it is appropriate to impose large debts on just-released prisoners, many of whom were unemployed or indigent before they were jailed, and the impact that such financial pressures may have in terms of increased recidivism. Former offenders already have a hard time finding jobs and achieving post-release stability – does it make sense to saddle them with jail fees they can’t afford?
In May 2010, prisoners’ rights advocates in Massachusetts protested a legislative budget amendment that would al-low county jails to impose a $5 daily fee. “We object to [the amendment] because it has the possibility of increasing and perpetuating a resurgence of criminals and inmates, cultivating an institutionalized prison culture, legitimated by economic and budgetary policies, increasing crime and violence, and increasing poverty, economic and social disparity, immediately reflected in racial and ethnic demographics,” said Rev. George Walters-Sleyon, director of The Center for Church and Prison in Dorchester.
The $5-a-day jail fee proposal was approved by the House, but the Massachusetts Senate passed a different amend-ment in late May that allows the state’s 14 county jails to collect an unspecified amount from prisoners to defray expenses. The debt would be forgiven if they stay out of jail for two years after release.
While some prisoners may be able to pay per diem jail fees, they are the exception rather than the rule. After all, the entire concept is counterintuitive. Those who can afford to pay while sitting in jail could likely afford to make bond, and thus wouldn’t be incarcerated. Poor and indigent prisoners who can’t pay will simply rack up bills that become due follow-ing their release, which sets them up for financial failure.
Also, money deducted from prisoners’ jail accounts to pay the fees is usually deposited by friends and family mem-bers. Thus, they are the ones who are actually paying. “It’s the spouses, children and parents who pay the fees. They are the people who contribute to prisoners’ canteen accounts,” noted Sarah Geraghty, with the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR). The SCHR successfully opposed efforts in Georgia to charge jail prisoners $40 a day.
Having prisoners’ families – who are often themselves impoverished – pay for their loved ones’ imprisonment is poor public policy. Consider that it is not only parents with school-age children who have to pay the cost of public schools. That cost is paid through taxes imposed on everyone because public education, like our criminal justice system, is a public ser-vice. Thus, why should prisoners and their families be singled out for the cost of incarceration?
As Much Justice As You Can Afford
In summary, wealthy defendants, assuming they are arrested in the first place, can usually make bond while poor prisoners remain in jail. Celebrities and others with financial means have the option of booking themselves into pay-to-stay facilities, where they enjoy sundry amenities and are separated from the common riff-raff, or can even stay at home in some cases by hiring private security guards to watch over them.
When wealthy and famous offenders are convicted, their punishments tend to be on the more lenient end of the sen-tencing spectrum – such as probation, community service or short stints behind bars, even for serious crimes. For exam-ple, Mike Tyson’s 24-hour jail stay for felony drug possession and DUI, or Roger Avary’s one-year sentence for vehicular manslaughter that initially included work release.
The well-to-do and well-connected often receive preferential treatment while incarcerated, are usually housed at less-dangerous minimum-security facilities, and are frequently released from custody early – such as the 82 minutes that Nichole Richie spent in jail or the 84 minutes served by Lindsay Lohan.
Any doubt that celebrities get special treatment, or are sometimes able to pay their way out of prison, was dispelled by a 1984 incident involving Motley Crue singer Vince Neil. Neil was driving drunk when he lost control of his car and hit another vehicle head-on, killing his passenger, drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, and seriously injuring two people in the other car. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, five years probation, community service and $2.5 million in restitution.
In a 2005 interview with Blender magazine, Neil said, “I wrote a $2.5 million check for vehicular manslaughter when Razzle died. I should have gone to prison. I definitely deserved to go to prison. But I did 30 days in jail and got laid and drank beer, because that’s the power of cash. That’s fucked up.”
At least he’s honest about it, except that he actually served only 20 days in jail, not 30. In January 2007 Neil was ar-rested for DUI in Las Vegas, but the charge was reduced to reckless driving. He was arrested again in Las Vegas on sus-picion of DUI on June 27, 2010, and released on $2,000 bond an hour after being charged.
Pay-to-stay jails, “bail sitting,” lenient sentences and early releases for wealthy and celebrity offenders pervert our criminal justice system by dispensing disparate treatment based on financial worth and social standing. Further, such privileges for the rich and famous help perpetuate the crowded, violent and sometimes deadly jails that poor prisoners must endure. If affluent prisoners had to serve time under similar abysmal conditions of confinement, perhaps improve-ments would be made.
“The bottom line is that we live in a plutocracy with special treatment for the rich, and we have Paris Hilton [and other celebrities] to thank for making the message clear – we get as much justice as we can afford,” PLN associate editor Alex Friedmann wrote in a June 2007 editorial.
Pay-to-stay programs do not significantly disadvantage the rich, but the per diem fees that regular jails are increas-ingly imposing on prisoners economically devastate the poor. Until this disparity is addressed, self-pay jails, stay-at-home bail monitoring and other perks available only to wealthy offenders will remain morally and ethically indefensible in a criminal justice system that prides itself on the motto inscribed on the front of the U.S. Supreme Court building: “Equal justice under law.”
But honestly, what can we expect from a wealth-driven justice system when, according to financial disclosure state-ments released in June 2010, at least five Supreme Court Justices are millionaires? Money and celebrity status talk, and our criminal justice system listens.
Sources: Michigan Law Review, National Public Radio, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Associated Press, www.marginalrevolution.com, Fox News, www.kval.com, Orange County Register, Tennessean, San Gabriel Valley Trib-une, Reuters, www.law.com, www.tmz.com, www.insidesocal.com, www.cnn.com, www.msnbc.com, BBC News, www.usmagazine.com, www.nydailynews.com, Palm Beach Post, http://badpress.wordpress.com, Phoenix New Times, USA Today, www.people.com, www.crxs.com, www.msnbc.msn.com, www.dailymail.co.uk, www.thesmokinggun.com, Orlando Sentinel, www.reasontofreedom.com, Detroit News, www.mlive.com, www.contactmusic.com, www.associatedcontent.com
cause of death
So often that we hear celebrity and other important person pass away and most time usually and sudden and after and after a so called autopsy the cause is Combined drug intoxication (CDI), also known as multiple drug intake (MDI) or lethal polydrug/polypharmacy intoxication, is an unnatural cause of human death. It is distinct in that it is due to the simultaneous use of multiple drugs seem to be happen more frequent with ordinary people but the way these celebrity died like the death of Michael Jackson led to the Trial of Conrad Murray to which he was sentenced to four years in California prison and Whitney husten which some claim wanted out of the illuminati or that some died around the age of 27 or passed away on the twenty fifth
Now let look at cdi what it is about how the state is focusing on wrong drug like cocaine marijuana while ignoring over the counter drug which many life have been lost .a suvay sail American are more on drug than any other country in the world and at the end I will give u a list of famous who have passed away.
CDI can occur with numerous drug combinations, including mixtures of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, legally or illegally obtained prescription drugs, herbal mixtures, and home remedies. Ingestion of alcoholic beverages, in combination with other drugs, increases the risk of CDI.[citation needed]
The CDI/MDI phenomenon seems to be becoming more common in recent years. In December 2007, according to Dr. John Mendelson, a pharmacologist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, deaths by combined drug intoxication were relatively "rare" ("one in several million"), though they appeared then to be "on the rise".[2] In July 2008, the Associated Press and CNN reported on a medical study showing that over two decades, from 1983 to 2004, such deaths have soared.[3] It has also become a prevalent risk for older patient
People who engage in polypharmacy and other hypochondriac behaviors are at an elevated risk of death from CDI. Elderly people are at the highest risk of CDI, due to having many age-related health problems requiring many medications combined with age-impaired judgment, leading to confusion in taking medications.[3][4]
Recent veterans back from war and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in combat are at risk of dying from CDI/MDI.[citation needed] Nine Veteran PTSD patients died from CDI/MDI in America in 2007.[citation needed] There are anecdotal reports of veterans dying from combinations of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and tranquilizers used in combination with OTC medicines like diphenhydramine.[citation needed] While still a U.S. senator from Illinois, United States President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress to inquire about the safety of these drugs.[citation needed] There is an ongoing investigation of the matter.[5]
[edit]Prevention
In general, the simultaneous use of multiple drugs should be carefully monitored by a qualified individual such as board certified and licensed medical doctor, either an M.D. or D.O.. Close association between prescribing physicians and pharmacies, along with the computerization of prescriptions and patients' medical histories, aim to avoid the occurrence of dangerous drug interactions. Lists of contraindications for a drug are usually provided with it, either in monographs, package inserts (accompanying prescribed medications), or in warning labels (for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs). CDI/MDI might also be avoided by physicians requiring their patients to return any unused prescriptions. Patients should ask their doctors and pharmacists if there are any interactions between the drugs they are taking.
Paracetamol deaths
On June 30, 2009 an FDA advisory panel recommended that Vicodin and another painkiller, Percocet, be removed from the market because they have allegedly caused over 400 deaths a year. The problem is with paracetamol (acetaminophen) overdose and liver damage. These two drugs, in combination with other drugs like Nyquil and Theraflu, can cause death by multiple drug intake and/or drug overdose. Another solution would be to not include paracetamol with Vicodin or Percocet.
Celebrity deaths due to CDI (or MDI)
Many celebrities have died from CDI/MDI, including:
Singer Whitney Houston from drinking Alcohol beverages, Xanax, Benadryl, Cocaine,and Flexeril.
Writer/actor/comedian Freddy Soto from fentanyl, alprazolam and alcohol;
Pro westling manager Elizabeth Ann Hulette aka Miss Elizabeth from alcohol, temazepam, oxycodone, hydrocodone and anabolic steroids;
Child actress Anissa Jones from cocaine, PCP, methaqualone and secobarbital;
Pro wrestler Louie Spicolli from carisoprodol, alcohol, painkillers and lorazepam;
Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert from citalopram, clonazepam and hydrocodone;[2][6]
Actor Nick Adams from paraldehyde and promazine;
Guitarist Jimi Hendrix from alcohol and barbiturates;
Singer Elvis Presley had over 10 drugs in his system[citation needed] when he died. (The license of his physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos was later suspended and then revoked after press reports from then-ABC News reporter Geraldo Rivera on 20/20.);
Lester Bangs from diazepam and propoxyphene;
Deep Purple's Tommy Bolin from alcohol and prescription drugs and illegal drugs in combination;
David Anthony Kennedy, son of Senator Robert Francis Kennedy, from cocaine, pethidine and thioridazine;
Singer Johnny O'Keefe from combining several prescription drugs;
Steve Clark of rock group Def Leppard from combining antidepressants, tranquilizers and alcohol;
Actor Lani O'Grady of Eight is Enough from hydrocodone and fluoxetine;
Bridgette Andersen from alcohol and multiple drugs;
Edie Sedgwick from barbiturates and alcohol;
Dana Plato from carisoprodol and hydrocodone;
Actor/comedian Eric Douglas from alcohol, hydrocodone and temazepam;
Actor Heath Ledger from toxic combination of prescribed drugs;
Michael Jackson from the IV anesthetic propofol and other sedatives;
Brittany Murphy from multiple prescription drugs;
The Rev of Avenged Sevenfold from oxycodone, oxymorphone, diazepam, nordiazepam and alcohol.
Slipknot bassist Paul Gray from morphine and fentanyl
New York Rangers forward Derek Boogaard from oxycodone and alcohol. [7]
Rodney King from alcohol, and cocaine.
[edit]Anna Nicole Smith and Daniel Wayne Smith
Main article: Anna Nicole Smith
Further information: Anna Nicole Smith#Death and funeral
In February 2007, five months after her son Daniel Wayne Smith was found dead from CDI with methadone, sertraline, and escitalopram in his system,[8] Anna Nicole Smith also died from CDI/MDI, an autopsy detecting 11 drugs in her bloodstream. Deaths of Daniel Smith and Anna Nicole Smith were declared as an accidental drug overdose. [9][10]
Heath Ledger
Main article: Heath Ledger
Further information: Heath Ledger#Autopsy and toxicological analysis
Australian actor Heath Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008, in his SoHo, New York City, apartment; the toxicology report concluded that the cause of death was "acute intoxication" resulting from "the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine" and "that the manner of [his] death" was "accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications or combine drug intoxication(CDI)."[3][11][12]
Speedball deaths
Some controversially think speedball deaths are MDI/CDI when they might simply be drug overdose, which is a related but, different phenomenon. The following list is for speedball CDI/MDI deaths only. Victims must be using cocaine and heroin in combination or amphetamine with demerol. An upper and a downer combination can be called speedball death.
Layne Staley of Alice in Chains from cocaine and heroin.
Baseball athlete Ken Caminiti from cocaine and opioid painkillers;
Actor Trevor Goddard from cocaine, heroin and temazepam;
Actor/comedian John Belushi from cocaine and heroin 'speedball'
Stand up comedian Mitch Hedberg, also from 'speedball';
Actor River Phoenix from heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine;
Elisa Bridges from heroin, methamphetamine, pethidine and alprazolam;
Zac Foley of EMF from multiple illegal drugs;
John Kahn, a Jerry Garcia collaborator and member of the Jerry Garcia Band, from heroin, cocaine and fluoxetine;
Singer Janis Joplin from heroin and alcohol. The Heroin was not properly mixed for use and was too potent.
Actor/comedian Chris Farley from cocaine and heroin 'speedball'
CDI-related legal cases
Karen Ann Quinlan
Main article: Karen Ann Quinlan
The Right to Die case of then-comatose Karen Ann Quinlan (March 29, 1954 - June 11, 1985) made legal history in 1975 and 1976, stimulating public scrutiny of ethical and moral implications of her case. In 1975, after drinking gin and tonics at a party and then taking Diazepam, Quinlan collapsed, suffered respiratory failure and irreversible brain damage, and, after being taken to the hospital, lapsed into a persistent vegetative state. After she had been kept alive on a ventilator for several months without improvement, her parents requested that the hospital discontinue such active care and allow her to die. The hospital refused, and the subsequent legal battles made newspaper headlines and set significant precedents. After the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in her parents' favor, Quinlan spent nine more years comatose in the hospital, before dying from pneumonia in 1985.
This table show the death of famous people from 1950 to 1999 who have died from drug over dose most of them are not suspicious but whatever the reason famous people celebrity seen to have drug problem and if u want to get rid of the drug over dose seem to be the best way to do so.
Katy French
1983–2007 Model, socialite Brain damage most likely caused by cocaine use. [153][154]
Sigmund Freud
1856–1939 Neurologist Physician assisted morphine overdose. Euthanasia.
[155]
Gary Frisch
1969–2007 Website founder Jumped from a balcony while under the influence of ketamine. Officially ruled as misadventure. [156][157][158]
[edit]G
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Marie-France Gaite, akaGribouille
1941-1968 Singer "A lethal combination of medication and alcohol." [159]
Danny Gans
1956–2009 Impressionist, entertainer. Prescription hydromorphone use combined with pre-existing heart condition. Accidental. [160]
Paul Gardiner
1958–1984 Musician (Tubeway Army)
Heroin overdose. [161]
Judy Garland
1922–1969 Singer and actress Secobarbital overdose.[162] Her death certificate states the overdose was "accidental"[163]however there is speculation it was intentional.[164]
Lowell George
1945–1979 Musician (Little Feat)
Unspecified drug overdose. Accidental. [165]
Talitha Getty
1940–1971 Actress Heroin overdose. [166]
Iolanda Christina Gigliotti, akaDalida
1933–1987 Singer Barbiturate overdose. Suicide. [167][168]
Harold Gimblett
1914–1978 Cricketer Overdose of unspecified pills. [169]
Trevor Goddard
1962–2003 Actor Overdose of heroin, cocaine, valium and vicodin. Accidental. [170]
Greg Giraldo
1965–2010 Comedian Overdose of prescription medication. Accidental. [171]
Dwayne Goettel
1964–1995 Musician (Skinny Puppy)
Heroin overdose. [172]
Adam Goldstein, aka DJ AM 1973–2009 Disc Jockey Overdose of cocaine/levamisole, oxycodone, hydrocodone, lorazepam, clonazepam, alprazolam and diphenhydramine. Accidental. [173]
Paul Gray
1972–2010 Musician (Slipknot)
Morphine and fentanyl overdose. Accidental. [174]
Lucy Grealy
1963–2002 Poet Heroin overdose. [175]
Eddie Guerrero
1967–2005 Professional wrestler "Heart disease, complicated by an enlarged heart resulting from a history of anabolic steroid use." [176]
[edit]H
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Clinton Haines
1976–1997 Computer hacker Heroin overdose. Accidental. [177][178]
Kenneth Halliwell
1926–1967 Actor Pentobarbital overdose. Suicide. [179]
Patrick Hamilton
1904-1962 Writer Cirrhosis of the liver following years of alcoholism. [180]
William Hamilton
1805–1865 Physicist, astronomer, mathematician "A severe attack of gout precipitated by excessive drinking..." [181]
Edward A. Hannegan
1807–1857 Senator Morphine overdose. [182]
Tony Hancock
1924–1968 Actor Lethal mixture of amphetamines and liquor. Suicide. [183]
James Harden-Hickey
1854–1898 Author, adventurer Morphine overdose. Suicide. [184]
Bobby Hatfield
1940–2003 Musician (The Righteous Brothers)
Cocaine-induced heart attack. [185]
Malcolm Hardee
1950–2005 Comedian Drowned after he fell into the water whilst drunk. [186]
Tim Hardin
1941–1980 Musician Heroin overdose. [187]
Brynn Hartman 1958–1998 Wife and murderer of comedian Phil Hartman
Self-inflicted gunshot wound to her head under the influence of cocaine, alcohol and Zoloft.
[188]
Domino Harvey
1969–2005 Bounty hunter
Fentanyl overdose. [189]
Rodney Harvey
1967–1998 Actor, model Heroin overdose. [190]
Phyllis Haver
1899–1960 Actress Barbiturate overdose. Suspected suicide. [191]
James Hayden
1953–1983 Actor Heroin overdose. [192]
Paul Hayward
19??–1992 Rugby league player
Heroin overdose. [193]
Mitch Hedberg
1968–2005 Comedian Cocaine and heroin overdose. [194][195]
Tim Hemensley
1972–2003 Musician (GOD)
Heroin overdose. [196]
Margaux Hemingway
1954–1996 Actress Phenobarbital overdose. Disputed suicide.
[197]
Jimi Hendrix
1942–1970 Musician Respiratory arrest caused by alcohol and barbiturate overdose and vomit inhalation. [198]
Curt Hennig
1958–2003 Professional wrestler Cocaine overdose. [199]
James Leo Herlihy
1927–1993 Novelist, actor Overdose of sleeping pills. Suicide. [200][201]
Gino Hernandez
1957–1986 Professional wrestler Cocaine overdose. [202]
George Hickenlooper
1963–2010 Documentary filmmaker Oxymorphone and alcohol overdose. Accidental. [203]
Ureli Hill
1802–1875 Conductor
Morphine overdose. Suicide. [204]
Virginia Hill
1916–1966 Chicago Outfit courier
Sleeping pill overdose. [205]
Jane Aiken Hodge
1917–2009 Writer Unspecified drug overdose. Suicide. [206]
Abbie Hoffman
1936–1989 Political activist Phenobarbital overdose. Suicide. [207]
Billie Holiday
1915–1959 Jazz singer Cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcoholism. [208]
Michael Holiday
1924 - 1963 Singer Unspecified drug overdose. Suicide. [209]
John Curtis Holder, Jr., akaJackie Curtis
1947–1985 Actor Heroin overdose. [210]
Gary Holton
1952–1985 Actor and musician Heroin overdose. [211]
James Honeyman-Scott
1956–1982 Musician (the Pretenders)
Cocaine-induced heart attack. [212]
Shannon Hoon
1967–1995 Musician, singer (Blind Melon)
Cocaine overdose. [213]
Sebastian Horsley
1962–2010 Artist Heroin and cocaine overdose. [214]
Whitney Houston
1963–2012 Singer and actress Accidental drowning, due to atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use. Toxicology reports showed the acute presence of cocaine indicating use prior to death, as well as sub-/therapeutic levels of marijuana, Benadryl, Flexeril, and Xanax. [215]
Lisa Howard
1930–1965 Reporter Phenobarbital overdose. Officially listed as suicide but speculated as murder. [216]
Howard Hughes
1905–1976 Aviator, engineer, industrialist, movie producer Liver failure. Physician administered an overdose of codeine at "the highest clinical level ever recorded" at the time. [217]
Gertrude Hullett
1906–1956 Patient of Dr. John Bodkin Adams
Twice the fatal dose of sodium barbitone was found in her blood. [218]
Elizabeth Hulette, aka Miss Elizabeth
1960–2003 Professional wrestling manager Acute toxicity. Autopsy revealed pain killers, nausea medication and tranquilizers were found in her blood, along with an alcohol level of 0.29. [219]
Harold Hunter
1974–2006 Professional skateboarder, actor Cocaine-induced heart attack. [220]
Michael Hutchence
1960–1997 Musician, singer (INXS), actor
Self-induced asphyxiation while under the influence of alcohol, cocaine, Prozac and other prescription drugs. [221]
Phyllis Hyman
1949–1995 Singer Pentobarbital and secobarbital overdose. Suicide. [222]
[edit]I
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr., aka Joey Stefano
1968–1994 Pornographic actor Cocaine, morphine, heroin and ketamine overdose. [223][224]
Andy Irons
1978–2010 Surfer Cardiac arrest. His autopsy lists secondary cause of death as "acute mixed drug ingestion." Traces of cocaine, methamphetamine, alprazolam and methadone were found in his system. [225]
Bruce Edwards Ivins
1946–2008 Microbiologist Tylenol overdose. [226]
[edit]J
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Jennifer Lyn Jackson
1969–2010 Playboy Playmate
Heroin overdose. [227]
Michael Jackson
1958–2009 Pop singer Cardiac arrest. Personal physician administered lethal dose of propofol along with lorazepam,diazepam and midazolam.
[228]
Peter Jackson
1964–1997 Rugby league player Heroin overdose. [229]
Joyce Jameson
1932–1987 Actress Overdose of unspecified pills. Suicide. [230]
Steven Ronald Jensen 1959–2005 Musician (The Vandals)
Unspecified prescription drug overdose. [231]
Anissa Jones
1958–1976 Actress Overdose of barbiturates, cocaine, quaaludes, and PCP. Accidental. [232]
Brian Jones
1942–1969 Musician (The Rolling Stones).
Drowning under the influence of alcohol and drugs. [233]
Chloe Jones
1975–2005 Pornographic actress Prescription drug overdose. Accidental. [234]
Rob Jones, aka The Bass Thing 1964–1993 Musician (The Wonder Stuff).
Sources report contradictory information which include: heart problems,[235] heart attack potentially caused by heroin,[236] or simply "drug-related causes".[237]
Russell Jones, aka Ol' Dirty Bastard.
1968–2004 Rapper Overdose of cocaine and tramadol. Accidental. [238]
Janis Joplin
1943–1970 Musician Heroin overdose. [239]
[edit]K
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Frida Kahlo
1907-1954 Artist Official cause of death listed as pulmonary embolism though modern biographers largely accept that she actually died of an unspecified opiate pain killer overdose. Suicide is disputed. [240]
John Kahn
1947–1996 Musician (Jerry Garcia Band)
Heroin overdose. [241]
Chris Kanyon
1970–2010 Professional wrestler Antidepressants overdose. Suicide. [242][243]
Phil Katz
1962–2000 Computer programmer Acute pancreatic bleeding caused by chronic alcoholism [244]
David Kennedy
1955–1984 University drop-out Overdose of cocaine, Demerol, and Mellaril. [245]
Beverly Kenney
1932–1960 Singer Alcohol and Seconal overdose. Suicide. [246]
Bernard Kettlewell
1907–1979 Lepidopterist, medical doctor
Unspecified drug overdose. Accidental. [247]
David Kelly
1944–2003 Weapons expert Consumed around 30 dextropropoxyphene pills. Disputed suicide. [248]
Jack Kerouac
1922–1969 Author Cirrhosis, caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. [249][250]
Dorothy Kilgallen
1913–1965 Journalist Fatal combination of alcohol and barbiturates. Whether it was suicide, accidental or the result of foul play is undetermined. [251]
Richard Charles Knellar, akaDickie Pride
1941–1969 Singer Sleeping pill overdose. [252]
Thomas Kinkade
1958–2012 Painter Acute ethanol and diazepam intoxication. [253]
Arthur Koestler
1905–1983 Author Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [254]
John Kordic
1965–1992 Hockey player Unspecified drug overdose. [255]
[edit]L
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Deborah Laake
1953–2000 Writer Overdose of unspecified pills. Suicide. [256][257]
Alan Ladd
1913–1964 Actor Overdose of alcohol and three unspecified drugs. Accidental. [258]
Josiah Lamborn
1809–1847 Attorney General
Delirium tremens. [259]
Carole Landis
1919–1948 Actress Seconal overdose. Suicide.
[260]
Michael Larsen aka Eyedea
1981–2010 Rapper Unspecified opiate toxicity. Ruled accidental. [261]
Heath Ledger
1979–2008 Actor Combined drug intoxication of oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam, diazepam, temazepam and doxylamine. Accidental. [262]
Bruce Lee
1940–1973 Actor, martial artist Acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the prescription pain killing drug Equagesic. [263]
Gerald Levert
1966–2006 Singer Acute intoxication of Percocet, Vicodin, Darvocet, Xanax and two antihistamines. Accidental. [264]
Frank X. Leyendecker
1877–1924 Illustrator Highly suspected morphine overdose. Suicide. [265]
Debbie Linden
1961–1997 Model, actress Heroin overdose. [266]
Max Linder
1883–1925 Actor Linder and his wife both drank Veronal, injected morphine and cut open the veins in their arms. [267]
Eugene Lipscomb
1931–1963 American football player Heroin overdose. [268]
Eugenia Livanos
1927–1970 Wife of Stavros Niarchos
Barbiturate overdose. [269]
Kevin Lloyd
1949-1988 Actor Lloyd was three times over the legal blood alcohol limit for driving when he chocked on his own vomit. [270]
Mike Lockwood, aka Crash Holly 1971–2003 Professional wrestler Carisprodol and alcohol intoxication. Suicide. [271]
Philip Loeb
1891–1955 Actor Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [272]
Trinity Loren, aka Roxanne McPherson 1964–1998 Pornographic actress Prescription painkillers overdose. In a possible suicide. [273]
Malcolm Lowry
1909-1957 Poet and novelist Alcohol and barbiturates. Most likely suicide. [274]
Zoe Tamerlis Lund
1962–1999 Model, actress Cocaine-induced heart attack. [275][276]
Donyale Luna
1945–1979 Supermodel, actress Unspecified drug overdose. Accidental. [277]
Frankie Lymon
1942–1968 Singer Heroin overdose. [278]
Phil Lynott
1949–1986 Musician (Thin Lizzy)
Conflicting sources report various causes of death, including: heart and liver failure,[279] heart failure and pneumonia after a drug overdose,[280] and blood poisoning from heroin addiction.[281]
[edit]M
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Billy Mackenzie
1957–1997 Musician (the Associates)
Overdose of amitriptyline, paracetamol and other prescription drugs. Suicide. [282]
Chris Mainwaring
1965–2007 Australian football player
Cocaine overdose. Accidental. [283][284]
Bibek Maitra
19??–2006 Politician Unspecified drug overdose. [285]
Jesse Mahelona
1983–2009 American football player Motor-vehicle collision. Malehona was under the influence of alcohol. [286]
Thomas Manby
1769-1834 British naval officer Opium overdose [287]
Vickie Lynn Marshall, akaAnna Nicole Smith
1967–2007 Playboy playmate, actress Lethal combination of chloral hydrate and various benzodiazepines.
[288]
Adrienne Nicole Martin 1983–2010 Model, girlfriend of August Busch IV
Oxycodone overdose. Accidental. [289]
Andrew Martin, aka Test 1975–2009 Professional wrestler Oxycodone overdose. Accidental. [290]
Thalia Massie
1911–1963 Wife Barbiturate overdose. [291]
Lisa Matsumoto
1964–2007 Children's author Motor-vehicle collision. Matsumoto's blood alcohol level was .242, more than 3 times the legal limit. [292]
Billy Mays
1958–2009 Salesperson Heart disease with cocaine use being a "contributory cause". [293][294]
Joseph McCarthy
1908–1957 Senator Hepatitis exacerbated by alcoholism. [295]
[296] [297]
David McComb
1962-1999 Musician (The Triffids)
Heroin overdose. [298]
Jimmy McCulloch
1953–1979 Musician (Wings)
Heroin overdose. [299]
Marie McDonald
1923–1965 Actress Unspecified drug overdose. [300]
Robbie McIntosh
1950–1974 Musician (Average White Band)
Heroin overdose. [301]
Stephen McKeag
1970–2000 Ulster Defence Associationmember
Cocaine and pain killer overdose. [302]
Marguerite McNamara
1928–1978 Actress Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [303]
Lance McNaught a.k.a Lance Cade 1981-2010 Professional Wrestler Intoxication from mixed drugs complicated a cardiomyopathy. Accidental. [304]
Aimee Semple McPherson
1890–1944 Evangelist Shock and respiratory failure due to overdose of prescription barbiturates. [305]
Jonathan Melvoin
1961–1996 Keyboardist Heroin overdose. [306]
Robin Milford
1903-1959 Composer Aspirin overdose. Suicide. [307]
Mary Millington
1945–1979 Model, pornographic actress Paracetamol overdose. Suicide. [308]
Keith Moon
1946–1978 Musician (the Who)
Overdose on anti-seizure medication prescribed for alcoholism. Accidental. [309]
Odas Moon
1892–1937 Pilot Reportedly "drank himself to death". [310]
Kenneth Moore a.k.a. Big Moe 1974–2004 Rapper Heart attack with Purple Drank as a contributing factor [311]
Chester Morris
1901–1970 Actor Barbiturate overdose. [312]
Jim Morrison
1943–1971 Musician (The Doors)
Official cause of death is recorded as heart failure,[313] though Sam Bernett claims that Morrison died in Bernett's club, with heroin overdose as the suspected cause.[313]
Norma Mortenson, aka Marilyn Monroe
1926–1962 Actress Barbiturate overdose. Officially listed as "probable suicide" though several conspiracy theories exist. [314]
James Mossman
1926-1971 Journalist. Former MI6 agent.
Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [315]
Louis Mucciolo, Jr., aka Louie Spicolli
1971–1998 Professional wrestler Conflicting sources indicate drug overdose[316] while some indicate coronary disease that might have been impacted by drug use.[317]
Billy Murcia
1951–1972 Musician (New York Dolls)
Contradicting sources report the death as alcohol-related,[318] or drowning[319] after a drug overdose[320] or as a drug overdose.[321]
Brittany Murphy
1977–2009 Actress "[C]ombination of pneumonia, an iron deficiency and 'multiple drug intoxication.'" [322]
Brent Mydland
1952–1990 Musician (the Grateful Dead)
Cocaine and morphine overdose. [323]
[edit]N
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Henry Nasiff Jr, aka Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf
1962–2001 Entertainer Advanced alcoholism and a seizure disorder, complicated by a genetic condition. [324]
Yves Navarre
1940–1994 Writer Barbiturate overdose. Suicide. [325]
Filip Nikolic
1974–2009 Singer Heart attack induced by sleeping pills. [326]
Bradley Nowell
1968–1996 Musician (Sublime)
Heroin overdose. [327]
[edit]O
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Hugh O'Connor
1962–1995 Actor Suicide under influence of cocaine. [328]
Lani O'Grady
1954–2001 Actress Multiple drug intoxication. Vicodin and Prozac were found in her bloodstream [329]
Johnny O'Keefe
1935–1978 Singer Conflicting sources indicate drug overdose,[330][331] or simply heart attack.[332][333]
Pascale Ogier
1958–1984 Actress Unspecified drug overdose. [334]
Athina Onassis
1929-1974 Heiress and Socialite Acute Barbiturate Overdose. Debated if whether it was homicide or accidental.
[335]
Christina Onassis
1950-1988 Heiress and CEO Pulmonary Edema onset by years of prescription drug misuse. Primarily Dexedrine, diet pills and barbiturates. [336]
Alice Ormsby-Gore
1952–1995 Socialite Heroin overdose. [337]
John Patrick Oswald aka Jani Lane
1964–2011 Singer-songwriter (Warrant)
Alcohol poisoning. [338]
Bryan Ottoson 1978–2005 Musician (American Head Charge)
Prescription-drug overdose. Accidental. [65][339]
[edit]P
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Leila Pahlavi
1970-2001 Princess and fashion model Secobarbital overdose. Found to have five times the lethal amount in her system. Traces of a nonlethal amount of cocaine was also found in the bloodstream. Suicide or accidental death though is debated. [340]
Haley Paige
1981–2007 Pornographic actress Methadone overdose. Possibly suicide. [341]
Marco Pantani
1970–2004 Cyclist Cerebral and pulmonary edema potentially brought on by "tranquillisers, antidepressants and sedatives ... against a background of prolonged cocaine abuse". [342]
Robert Pastorelli
1954–2004 Actor Heroin overdose. [343]
Gram Parsons
1946–1973 Musician (the Byrds)
Morphine overdose. [344]
Cesare Pavese
1908–1950 Poet, novelist Consumed "twelve sachets of sleeping drugs". [345]
Chris Penn
1965–2006 Actor Enlarged heart through drug use and a high level of codeine. [346]
Christopher Pettiet
1976–2000 Actor Unspecified drug overdose. Accidental. [347]
Kristen Pfaff
1967–1994 Musician (Hole)
Heroin overdose. [348]
Esther Phillips
1935–1984 Musician, singer Liver and kidney failure due to long-term drug use. [349]
River Phoenix
1970–1993 Actor Heroin and cocaine overdose. [350]
Rob Pilatus
1965–1998 Musician (Milli Vanilli)
Prescription drug and alcohol overdose. [351]
Jesse Pintado
1969–2006 Musician Liver failure caused by diabetes and alcoholism. [352]
Sylvia Plath
1932-1963 Authoress and poet Suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Plath was reportedly suffering the adverse effects of an unspecified MAOI antidepressant at the time of her death. [353]
Dana Plato
1964–1999 Actress Vanadom and Lortab overdose. Suicide.
[354][355]
Edgar Allan Poe
1809-1849 Poet Cause of death disputed though largely attributed to a combination of laudanum abuse,dipsomania and delerium tremens.
[356]
Darrell Porter
1952–2002 Major League Baseball catcher Cocaine overdose. [357]
Elvis Presley
1935–1977 Singer Cardiac arrhythmia. Autopsy founds in his system "significant" levels of ethinamate, methaqualone, codeine and different barbiturates, including amobarbital, pentobarbital, and phenobarbital. [358][359]
Gary Primich
1958–2007 Singer "Acute heroin intoxication." [360]
Freddie Prinze
1954–1977 Actor Self-inflicted gunshot wound while under the influence of methaqualone and alcohol. Initially ruled suicide but later determined accidental. [361]
Promachus
???–324 BCE Soldier Alcohol poisoning. [362]
[edit]Q
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Robert Quine
1942–2004 Guitarist Heroin overdose. Suicide. [363]
Glenn Quinn
1970–2002 Actor Unspecified drug overdose. Accidental. [364]
[edit]R
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Jay Reatard
1980–2010 Musician Cocaine toxicity, with alcohol as a contributing factor. [365]
Noel Redding
1945–2003 Musician Shock haemorrhage due to oesophageal varices in reaction to cirrhosis of the liver,with alcohol as a contributing factor. [366]
Michael Reeves
1943–1969 Film director Alcohol and barbiturate overdose. [367]
Wallace Reid
1891–1923 Actor Prescription morphine overdose. [368]
Elis Regina
1945–1982 Singer Cocaine alcohol, and temazepam overdose. Accidental. [369]
Willy Rey
1949–1973 Model Barbiturate overdose. [370]
John Simon Ritchie, aka Sid Vicious
1957–1979 Musician (Sex Pistols)
Heroin overdose. Suicide. [371]
Elisabeth Rivers-Bulkeley
1924–2006 Stock-broker Barbiturate overdose. Euthanasia. [372]
Brad Renfro
1982–2008 Actor Heroin and morphine overdose. [373]
Rachel Roberts
1927–1980 Actress Barbiturate overdose. Suicide. [374]
Don Rogers
1962–1986 American football player Cocaine-induced heart attack. [375]
Steve Rogers
1954–2006 Rugby league player Lethal combination of anti-depressants and alcohol. Accidental. [376]
Monica Rose
1948–1994 TV show hostess Antidepressants and tranquillisers overdose. Suicide. [377][378]
Edgar Rosenberg
1925-1987 Film and television producer Overdosage of prescription drugs. Suicide. [379]
Alma Rubens
1897–1931 Actress Illness caused by heroin and cocaine addiction. [380]
Zdenka Rubinstein
1911–1961 Croatian operatic tenor Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [381]
David Ruffin
1941–1991 Musician (the Temptations)
Cocaine overdose. [382]
Gail Russell
1924–1961 Actress Alcoholism. [383]
Sherri Russell, aka Sherri Martel
1958–2007 Professional wrestler Overdose of multiple, including high amounts of oxycodone. Accidental. [384]
[edit]S
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
George Sanders
1906–1972 Actor Nembutal overdose. Suicide. [385]
John Saunders
1954–1999 Musician (Mad Season)
Heroin overdose. [386]
Catya Sassoon
1968–2002 Model, actress Hydromorphone and cocaine overdose. [387]
Sonja Savić
1961–2008 Actress Unspecified drug overdose. [388]
Sybille Schmitz
1909–1955 Actress Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [389]
Donald Sinclair
1911-1995 Veterinary surgeon Barbiturate overdose. Suicide. [390]
Bon Scott
1946–1980 Musician (AC/DC)
Official cause of death listed as "acute alcohol poisoning". [391]
Ronnie Scott
1927–1996 Jazz tenor saxophonist
Prescription barbiturate overdose. Accidental. [392]
Pat Screen
1943–1994 American football player Unspecified drug overdose. [393]
Rod Scurry
1956–1992 Major League Baseball pitcher Cocaine-induced heart attack. [394]
Jean Seberg
1938–1979 Actress Barbiturate and alcohol overdose. Suicide. [395]
Chantal Sébire
1955–2008 Teacher Pentobarbital overdose. Euthanasia. [396]
Edie Sedgwick
1943–1971 Actress Barbiturate and alcohol overdose. Undetermined. [397]
Bobby Sheehan
1968–1999 Musician (Blues Traveler)
Unspecified drug overdose. [398]
Eric Show
1956–1994 Baseball player Cocaine and heroin overdose. [399]
Elizabeth Siddal
1829–1862 Model, poet, artist Laudanum overdose.
[400]
Judee Sill
1944–1979 Musician Cocaine and heroin overdose. [401]
Don Simpson
1943–1996 Film producer Cocaine-induced heart attack. Twenty other drugs were found in his blood. [402]
Tom Simpson
1937–1967 Cyclist Dehydration and exhaustion while cycling exacerbated by amphetamines and alcohol use. [403]
Hillel Slovak
1962–1988 Musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Heroin overdose. [404]
Alvim Smith
1798–1823 Carpenter's assistant Mercury(I) chloride overdose. Officially administered to cure bilious colic; speculated murder. [405]
Daniel Smith
1986–2006 Student, Anna Nicole Smith's son Cardiac dysrhythmia caused by combination of methadone, Lexapro and Zoloft. [406]
Corey Smoot aka. Flattus Maximus
1977–2011 Guitarist Coronary artery thrombosis related to cocaine and opiate use. [407]
Dash Snow
1981–2009 Artist Heroin overdose. [408]
Robert Soblen
1900–1962 Psychiatrist Barbiturate overdose. [409]
Socrates
469 BC – 399 BC Philosopher Hemlock poisoning. Executed.
[410]
Erin Spanevello
1987–2008 Fashion model Overdose of MDMA and GHB.
[411][412]
Layne Staley
1967–2002 Musician (Alice in Chains)
Cocaine, heroin and codeine overdose. [413]
Mike Starr
1966–2011 Musician (Alice in Chains)
Suspected drug overdose. [414]
Miroslava Stern
1926–1955 Actress Overdose of sleeping pills. Suicide. [415]
Inger Stevens
1934–1970 Actress Barbiturate overdose. Suicide. [416]
Bradley Stewart, aka Gidget Gein
1969–2008 Musician (Marilyn Manson)
Heroin overdose. [417]
Rory Storm
1939–1972 Musician Alcohol and sleeping pill overdose. [418]
Margaret Sullavan
1909–1960 Actress Barbiturate overdose. Suicide. [419]
James Owen Sullivan, aka The Rev 1981–2009 Musician (Avenged Sevenfold) "[A]cute polydrug intoxication due to combined effects of oxycodone, oxymorphone, diazepam, nordiazepam and ethanol." [420]
Royce Surdam
1835–1891 Real-estate agent Laudanum overdose. Accidental. [421]
Jennifer Syme
1972–2001 Actress Crashed her car while under the influence of cocaine, clonazepam and cyclobenzaprine. [422][423]
[edit]T
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Warren Tartaglia, aka Walid al-Taha 1944–1965 Jazz musician Heroin overdose. [424]
Chase Tatum
1973–2008 Former professional wrestler Apparent drug overdose following years of addiction to painkillers. [425]
Vinnie Taylor 1949–1974 Musician (Sha Na Na)
Unspecified drug overdose. [426]
Sara Teasdale
1884–1933 Poet Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [427]
Gary Thain
1948–1975 Musician (Uriah Heep)
Respiratory failure due to a heroin overdose. [428]
Ada Thompson, aka Vivien Merchant
1929–1982 Actress Alcoholism. The coroner stated Merchant "drank herself to death." [429]
John Thompson
1938–1976 Poet Overdose of barbiturates and alcohol. [430]
Jotie T'Hooft
1956–1977 Poet Unspecified drug overdose. [431]
Johnny Thunders
1952–1991 Musician (the New York Dolls)
Conflicting sources report heroin overdose[432] or methadone and cocaine poisoning[433] or that the autopsy did not disclose a cause of death.[434]
Georg Trakl
1887–1914 Poet Cocaine overdose. Suicide. [435]
Chögyam Trungpa
1939–1987 Buddhist meditation master Cardiac arrest exacerbated by heavy alcohol use. [436]
Amy Tryon
1970–2012 Equestrian Oxycodone, diphenhydramine, alprazolam, lorazepam, diazepam and temazepam overdose. Accidental. [437]
Alan Turing
1912-1954 Computer Scientist and mathematician Cyanide poisoning. Disputed suicide.
[438]
D. M. Turner
1962–1996 Author Drowned in a bathtub while under the influence of ketamine.
[439]
Ike Turner
1931–2007 Musician, producer Cocaine overdose with high blood pressure and emphysema as contributing factors.
[440]
Dick Twardzik
1931–1955 Jazz pianist Heroin overdose. [441][442]
Helen Twelvetrees
1908–1958 Actor Unspecified drug overdose. Suicide. [443]
John Tyndall
1820–1893 Physicist Overdose of Chloryl hydrate. Accidental.
[444]
[edit]U
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Dorothy Uhnak
1930–2006 Author Unspecified drug overdose. Suicide. [445]
Stu Ungar
1953–1998 Professional poker player Heart condition caused by long-term cocaine abuse. [446]
Enrique Urquijo
1960–1999 Singer Unspecified drug overdose. [447]
[edit]V
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Paul Vaessen
1961–2001 Former professional footballer Unspecified drug overdose. [448]
Brandon Vedas
1981–2003 Computer expert Multiple drug overdose, including "alcohol, cannabis, psilocybin mushroom, clonazepam, temazepam, methadone, hydrocodone and propanolol". [449][450]
Lupe Vélez
1908–1944 Actress Secobarbital overdose. Suicide. [451]
Michael VerMeulen
1956–1995 Magazine editor Cocaine overdose. [452]
Jeffrey James Vickers, aka Jon Vincent
1962–2000 Pornographic actor Heroin overdose. [453]
[edit]W
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Marie Walcamp
1894–1936 Actress Pain killer overdose. Suicide. [454]
Robert Walker
1918–1951 Actor Reaction to a sedative administered by his doctor. [455]
Stephen Ward
1912-1963 Osteopathic physician
Sleeping pill overdose. Officially suicide. Speculated murder. [456]
Dinah Washington
1924–1963 Singer Secobarbital and amobarbital overdose. [457]
Dave Waymer
1958–1993 American football player Cocaine-induced heart attack. [458][459]
George Webley aka Big George 1957–2011 Broadcaster
Heart attack after mephedrone use.
[460]
Mikey Welsh
1971–2011 Musician with the groupWeezer
Suspected drug overdose [461]
Daniel Webster
1782–1852 Statesman
Cerebral hemorrhage, caused by a blow to the head and complicated by alcohol-induced cirrhosis of the liver. [462]
Assia Wevill
1927-1969 Poetess, Mistress Suicide by acute carbon monoxide poisoning combined with an overdosage of hypnotics. She also sedated and murdered her four year old daughter in this process. [463]
Willie Wilde
1852–1899 Journalist "Complications related to his alcoholism." [464]
Ellen Wilkinson
1891–1947 Politician Barbiturate overdose. [465]
Gertrude Elizabeth Wilkerson, aka Luna Vachon
1962–2010 Professional wrestler Overdose of oxycodone and benzodiazepine. Accidental. [466]
Hank Williams, aka Hank Williams, Sr.
1923–1953 Singer and writer Overdose of morphine and alcohol. Accidental. [467]
Kenneth Williams
1926–1988 Actor, author Barbiturate overdose. It was not possible to establish whether his death was suicide or accidental. [468][469]
Alan Wilson
1943–1970 Musician (Canned Heat)
Unspecified drug overdose. Possibly suicide. [470]
Amy Winehouse
1983–2011 Singer-Songwriter Alcohol poisoning. [471]
Sheree Winton
1935–1976 Singer-songwriter Alcohol poisoning. [472]
Rachel Whitear
1979–2000 Student Heroin overdose. Accidental. [473]
Brett Whiteley
1939–1992 Artist Heroin overdose. [474]
Grant Withers
1905–1959 Actor Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [475]
Keith Whitley
1954–1989 Singer Alcohol poisoning. [476]
Frances Wollstonecraft, akaFanny Imlay
1794–1816 Wife Laudanum overdose. Suicide. [477]
Linda Wong
1951–1987 Pornographic actress Overdose of Xanax, chloral hydrate, and alcohol. [478]
Andrew Wood
1966–1990 Singer (Mother Love Bone)
Heroin overdose. [479]
Anna Wood
1980–1995 Student Water intoxication secondary to use of MDMA. [480][481]
[edit]Y
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Paula Yates
1959–2000 TV presenter, author Heroin overdose. Accidental. [482]
Kelly Yeomans
1984–1997 Student Unspecified drug overdose. Suicide. [483]
[edit]Z
Name Life Profession Cause of death Reference
Stefan Zweig
1881–1942 Playwright Sleeping pill overdose. Suicide. [484]
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