Prescription Drugs To Blame for Michael Jackson's Death?

An autopsy will be conducted on Michael Jackson today and a preliminary report may be released as early as this afternoon. Results from toxicology tests aren’t expected until next month.

The former Jackson 5 singer died Thursday after he suffered a cardiac arrest at his Holmby Hills home. Paramedics responded to a 911 call from his home at 12:26 p.m. The King of Pop was not breathing when paramedics arrived and they were unable to resuscitate him.

As far back as 2006, members of Michael Jackson's family were terrified that his escalating dependence on prescription drugs had become a danger to his life – and attempted an intervention in Las Vegas.

"The family believes Michael is addicted," a family insider told People Magazine. "There was an intervention in Las Vegas. Janet was on the phone, but Randy, Jackie and Rebbie were there in person," the source said, referring to several of Michael's eight siblings.

At the time of the Vegas intervention, another source close to the family blamed a Jackson aide for supplying the superstar with drugs from prescriptions acquired from multiple doctors.

"[The aide] has contacts wherever they are," said the source. In addition to consuming alcohol, Jackson takes "straight morphine, Demerol and opiates like Oxycontin. He also takes Valium and Xanax," said the insider. "Michael is a clinically functioning addict and these are the most dangerous," the source continued. "They stop and start. These are the ones that OD ... It could happen any minute."

Jackson family spokesman Brian Oxman hinted in a CNN interview Thursday evening that medications may have played a role in Jackson’s death.

“This is not something that has been unexpected any time that there was a report because of the medications which Michael was under. This family has been trying for months and months and months to take care of Michael Jackson. The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him. If you think that the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it is nothing in comparison to what we have seen taken place in Michael Jackson’s life,” Oxman told CNN.

Jackson’s children and family began gathering to mourn at the family home in Encino, California on Friday. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

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