Michael Jackson’s friend and dermatologist Dr Arnie Klein has admitted once giving the star a strong sedative and claimed the pop star had been addicted to drugs.

Speaking to Larry King on his CNN chat show, Klein said Jackson was once a drug addict but he came to Britain to dry out.

“Michael at one time had an addiction,” he said. “He went to England and he with-drew that addiction in a secure setting.”

He also said the Thriller star had a “huge tolerance level” when it came to drugs – typical of an addict.
King asked him if he knew whether Michael was taking Diprivan – the anaesthetic believed to have been found in his house by investigators after his death two weeks ago.

Klein said he was aware Michael used it when he was on tour in Germany to help him sleep and that an anaesthetist was administering it to him. “I told him that he was absolutely insane,” Klein commented. “You can’t repeatedly take it, because what happens with narcotics, no matter what you do, you build a tolerance to them.” Despite being shocked that the drug was reportedly found in Jackson’s home, Klein said he wasn’t surprised as abuse of the medication was “not unheard of”.

The doctor, who has written a book on heroin addicts, also admitted “occasionally” giving Jackson the powerful painkiller Demerol to sedate him, but said it was after he was burnt whilst filming the Pepsi advert and suffered serious hair loss after contracting Lupus.

The inflammatory disease causes the body’s immune system to attack its own tissues and organs, including the skin, heart and lungs and Klein claims 50-year-old Michael was a sufferer.
Reference: Daily Mirror July 09, 2009

From The Administrator:

I believe we all knew Michael Jackson had an addiction but I worked in Emory University's Hospital Pharmacy and Diprivan is not a medication given for sleep. I was shocked to discover He had been given Diprivan because it is not a medication dispensed by prescription.

How many of you are even familiar with Diprivan? It is a medication given usually in OR to put a person to sleep before surgery. It is given by intravenous drip and as they have told you, oxygen tanks are usually present in case your oxygen level drops too low. My question to all of you, "Do you feel like the physician who provided the drug to Michael Jackson should be prosecuted?"

I am asking because it is not a medication like Demerol, Oxycontin, Xanax, Percocet or Methadone...it is not dispensed from a pharmacy but must be obtained from a Hospital. We did keep it in stock at Emory but we had to account for each vial given and many times I had to deliver it to the anestheologist in OR. It is not a medication which should have ever been given to Michael Jackson...

How about some feedback on the subject? I know some of you had to be lovers of Michael Jackson's music and must have some feelings on the subject. Michael Jackson did have the disease of addiction in common with us and I feel like we do need to recognize all the suffering He went through because it was obvious with all the money He had ...He was miserable. If we had the amount of money He had who knows ..we could have met the same fate if we were able to obtain any medication we wanted. Personally, I am glad I was unable to obtain any medication I chose who knows ...I probably would not be here today.

Thank You. R.I.P. Michael Jackson