Prince's Health Scare Likely Reaction to Painkillers
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour --</s>SESAY: Authorities say they found prescription medication on Prince at the time of his death. Investigators believe a health scare a week before his death was likely caused by a reaction to the painkillers.</s>VAUSE: They're still waiting for the results from the autopsy and the toxicology tests. The music star was 57 years old when he died last week at home.</s>VAUSE: Well, let's bring in Dr. Drew Pinsky. He's the host of HLN's "Dr. Drew" and is an addiction medicine specialist. He joins us by phone from right here in L.A. Dr. Drew, thanks so much for joining us. When you hear that authorities found these prescription drugs on Prince's person and in his home, what goes through your mind?</s>DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST, DR. DREW (voice-over): Well, a couple of thoughts. We've been hearing rumors he was taking the medication Percocet, which is precisely one of these opioid pain medications. It makes me wonder whether or not this is a medical misadventure. Perhaps a doctor gave him something called a benzodiazepine, an anxiety valium-like medication or a sleeping medication. We heard these rumors he hadn't slept for 154 hours. If someone added a sleeping medication to a modest dose of opiate, like Percocet, whatever the name is, they're all pretty much the same, that is a potentially lethal combination. That does not mean Prince was an addict. We don't see the typical behaviors of somebody struggling with long-term addiction, progression, all the things we're used to seeing celebrities struggling with the disease. Never have we had a hint of Prince manifesting those sorts of phenomenon and behavior. And yet, all of a sudden, here at the end, things go back quickly. I'm suspicious. My clinical hunch is that he has some sort of underlying medical problem. Of course, we've been hearing about the hip pain. But something more, something more substantial, and that the pain medication got involved and they were on top of some problem, but may, my fear is, they are the things that really took a genius from all of us.</s>SESAY: Doctor, is it possible, though, that one could have an addiction to these kind of drugs and it not be known by those around you, those closest to you?</s>PINSKY: It's possible. But think of the celebrities that have died of addiction in recent years. You knew something was up and you knew things were progressing and you knew things were getting worse. There were stories of people struggling and trying to help them and get them -- sometimes you would shake your head and wonder what was going on. You wouldn't be clear it was addiction. But you would hear stories of a struggle and a progression. That's addiction. In this case you can become dependent. The real story behind all this is the fact that 90 percent of the pain medication prescribed on earth are prescribed in America. That's ridiculous. We are way too aggressive with these medications. And when they themselves are -- it's very difficult to overdose on oral opiates. You can but it's difficult. But when you add in the benzodiazepine and the sleeping medication it's very easy to accidentally overdose.</s>SESAY: Let me ask you this. The autopsy results, the toxicology, all that detail won't be known for a while yet. But can that process, can those tests definitively determine whether or not he had a long-term dependency on these medications?</s>PINSKY: They can give a hint. If there's nothing else going on that explains the cause of death and somebody stops breathing and there are moderate to high doses of an opiate and Benzodiazepine it's pretty much a smoking gun. There's other bits of evidence that tells us somebody simply stopped breathing. But again, I don't think it's going to be that simple. I really don't. It may be. It's possible. But I just don't think so. It just doesn't sound like that. But it is a reminder of how -- listen, if you were going to die of a substance ingestion today, it's going to be an opioid pain medication and a benzodiazepine prescribed by a doctor often taken, quote, "as directed." So, please, people who have chronic pain, these are not good and are potentially dangerous treatment. Be very cautious and very circumspect, especially if somebody provides you with you a benzodiazepine medication on top of that. It is exquisitely dangerous.</s>SESAY: Dr. Drew, a good word of warning there. So appreciate the fact you could join us this evening.</s>PINSKY: You bet.</s>SESAY: Thank you, Dr. Drew.</s>PINSKY: You bet. Thanks, Isha.</s>VAUSE: Millionaire real estate heir, Robert Durst, is headed here to Los Angeles to face murder charges. That's after a judge in the state of Louisiana sentenced him to seven years in prison on an unrelated gun charge. Durst will be transferred to California, where he says he'll plead not guilty in the death of a friend 16 years ago.</s>SESAY: In an HBO documentary released last year, Durst appeared to confess to murder accusations when's he was apparently unaware his microphone was still on.</s>VAUSE: When we come back, an unusual situation to Venezuela's energy crisis. Government workers are only being allowed to work two days a week.