Legal Prescription Drugs Killed Brokeback Mountain Star Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger's death has been ruled an accidental overdose of legal prescription drugs. He father believes it should serve as a wake up call.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The father of Hollywood actor Heath Ledger is asking Americans to pay closer attention to the use of prescription drugs in the wake of a coroner's confirmation that the Brokeback Mountain star lost his life to an accidental overdose.

It is a truly desperate picture that we face as a society that attacks the use of natural medical treatments like medical marijuana, even going so far as to demonize the people who use it to seek relief from sickness and disease, while adopting and allowing slick potions hatched in dollar-driven laboratories to choke the life out of people.

While the federal government refuses to budge and recognize the individual rights of states on the matter, they have in recent years endorsed one new pharmaceutical drug after another with no thought at all toward public safety.

Because aside from Phen Phen diet pills, Vioxx and Oxycontin, the ones that out and out kill people, these doctors know that more people die from overdoses of the drugs they prescribe than anyone wants to know.

Tens of thousands of people lose their lives each year from complications that arise from pharmaceutical drugs they are legally prescribed.

Marijuana goes on with its illegal status. Doctors with half a brain know that medical marijuana is a safe bet. People who don't want to smoke it can use a vaporizer or they can eat it.

Heath Ledger's father stated through his son's publicist: "Heath’s accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."

The statement was made just minutes after the chief Medical Examiner of New York, Charles Hirsch, confirmed the cause of death.

"Mr Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine," Hirsch said.

"We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications."

Well America, you can't die from an overdose of marijuana, it is physically impossible and that is a fact. If those who disagree can prove otherwise, contact the Marijuana Policy Project in San Francisco or the group NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and tell them you want the twenty five thousand dollar standing offer to anyone who can attribute a death to marijuana use.

One word for the wise is that when the anti-marijuana folks try to turn out information they are frequently dishonest, blatantly, because they are out of excuses, and they know there are real and true medical benefits in cannabis.

Like many in political power, they simply make it up as they go. One argument they wage is that some people who died had marijuana in their systems, but there is always something else that caused the death and marijuana happened to be in their systems as well.

So when you think about this young rising Hollywood star so promising and so vibrant, consider that the drugs and practices your federal government approves and stands behind undoubtedly had a hand in killing him.

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ME February 14, 2008 10:00 am (Pacific time)

I AGRE WETH THE GY UP THER Anonymous February 6, 2008 7:48 pm THES GY

A. Stern February 9, 2008 6:30 pm (Pacific time)

My shocking, aforementioned J.A.M.A. figure of over 100,000 Deaths Per Year from FDA-approved pharmaceuticals is a low-ball figure. The relevant JAMA study did not include cases where drugs were mis-prescribed. When considering deaths from pharmaceuticals outside hospitals, i.e., at home, the number rises to around 140,000 a year according to Centers for Disease Control statistics. These are not deaths from illegal street drugs; those cause only a small fraction of the deaths from FDA-approved drugs, which kill three times the number dying each year from automobile accidents. Here is the JAMA source for the study, so you don't think I'm lying through my teeth, like the FEDS: JAMA - Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients - A Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies. Jason Lazarou, MSc; Bruce H. Pomeranz, MD, PhD; Paul N. Corey, PhD; JAMA.1998; 279:1200-1205.

GodisLove February 7, 2008 5:34 pm (Pacific time)

If he would have been prescribed medical marijuana for sleep/anxiety, he would have reduced the intake of HARMFUL, deadly pharmaceuticals. Therefore reducing his chances of overdosing. And if he had steered clear from mixing pharmaceuticals at all while just using the herb, he would be alive and well as we speak. The pharmaceutical company will lose out on so much money by selling marijuana. If somebody were to be prescribed medical marijuana, they wouldn't need half of the garbage that they are taking now. So it doesn't make sense for them to sell one product which decreases the need for their other products. Plus, it's a plant and anybody can grow it. And God forbid people actually save money by growing this herb that God himself/herself provided for us to use. They are in it for the money, not to help people. GOD MADE GANJA GROW SO LET GANJA GROW FREE!

CCitizen February 7, 2008 9:35 am (Pacific time)

First let me preface my comments by saying it is a sad state when abuse or use of any drug leads to a person's death. Note that Mr. Ledger's death was caused by the abuse of prescription drugs (plural). It wasn't the proper use of one drug, it was misuse of a combination of drugs which caused his death. Comparing this to use of medical marijuana is an apple vs. oranges issue...one vs. many and doesn't hold water. To suggest that if one were to use medical marijuana would cause one to reduce the need or want for other drugs is purely hypothetical. Food for thought, if the pharmaceutical companies saw dollar signs in medical marijuana, don't you think they'd attempt to flex their muscle in legalizing it and attempt to cash in on it?

Julie February 6, 2008 9:19 pm (Pacific time)

Hey Anonymous person, since when isn't DEATH news? Especially when caused by the number ONE addiction in America? Prescription drugs are killing more people every day than anything else, and nobody seems to care or pay attention. Just because they were legal to obtain doesn't mean that people are supposed to abuse and misuse them, share them with others or sell to the kid down the street. That's the story here, get it?

Anonymous February 6, 2008 7:48 pm (Pacific time)

Who cares? How about some real news?

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