He Didn’t Die Of A Drug Overdose  I read entertainment news
fairly compulsively, even reading about television shows I will
never watch and movie stars I know I detest. In this case, I was
reading a recent news report about a musician I never
deliberately listened to in my life – Rick James, whose recent
death is old news by now. When James first died, drugs were
implicated in his death, due to his history as a crack cocaine
addict. But the official autopsy results were delayed while a
coroner’s pathologist did toxicology and other tests. These
results were made public on September 16th. The official cause
of death was determined to be heart failure due to an enlarged
heart, with numerous drugs listed as contributing factors.
Numerous, in this case, being nine drugs. Here’s the laundry
list from the coroner’s statement:  “Toxicology revealed the
presence of the following drugs: Alprazolam (Xanax), Diazepam
(Valium), Bupropion (Wellbutrin), Citalopram (Celexa),
Hydrocodone (Vicodin), Digoxin, Chlorpheniramine