The recent death of singer Michael Jackson of course made me think of my friend, Elvis Presley, whose death anniversary we celebrate this month. I watch the morning news and hear what's new in the investigation of Jackson's death. The implications so far have been that he was on prescription drugs and that at least one doctor may be involved in administering injections of other drugs - most likely pain killers - to him. Like Elvis, whose tours were unrelentless, Jackson was up against a big tour schedule of about fifty shows in a row.
As you probably know Jackson was briefly married to Elvis's daughter Lisa Marie Presley, who is now happily married to another man and a little less than a year ago had twin daughters. I'll leave Lisa Marie out of this post, as she was out of the marriage with Jackson.
When I first met Elvis the man wasn't even a drinker. And I believed for most of my friendship with him that any prescription drugs he was given, by doctors, had to be safe. Elvis' death in which a great number of prescription drugs were found in his system - interacting and counteracting each other - seemed to be a WARNING to everyone what could happen when even doctors didn't know when enough was enough.
So sadly, I remember Elvis at his best, in contrast to how debilitated he was in the end.
Ever since Elvis died I've been afraid to ever take sleeping pills or any prescription drug I don't really need, afraid I might become addicted. My writing partner, Christine Trzyna, is the same way, believing that holistic medicine and yoga are the better or first alternative.
We ask our readers to stay away from street drugs and to ask your doctor a lot of questions, be as informed a pharmaceutical consumer as you can be, and not to follow in either Elvis' or Micheal's footsteps in this way.
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