Everyone Wants To Pigeonhole Prince’s Death, But It’s Not That Simple

Before Prince’s death, I had a passing but intense familiarity with his music.

During my freshman year, my college roommate played “Little Red Corvette” on an endless loop. She would frequently leave it playing all day long, and her computer was locked. I halfheartedly tried to put a stop to the endless stream of Prince, but honestly it was so freaking good I didn’t really mind.

After college, I pursued a career as a therapist. First, I focused on medication assisted therapies for opiate dependent individuals (think: methadone, Suboxone), and then found my way into intensive outpatient therapy. Over the past decade, I’ve counseled hundreds of people struggling with substance abuse issues, and none of them could be singularly defined by the simple and often pejorative term, ‘addict’.

So, why in Prince’s death are we so quick to pigeonhole him into that all too simplistic category? Tawdry headlines flashed across the internet in the days and weeks after Prince’s death, confidently stating that Prince died from an overdose. Click-baiters knew what they were doing. We all know that the word ‘overdose’ smacks of ‘addict’, and that it welcomes all the negative associations that come along with that term.

First off, let’s be clear. No one — and I mean no one — is simply an ‘addict’. There’s always more to the story. And, in the case of prescription pain medication, the story is frightening and becoming all too familiar.

Back in June of 2009, I was working at a methadone clinic in Bridgeport, CT. News of Michael Jackson’s death reached me just as a group was letting out from a room across my office. One of my clients popped her head in to check in with me, and I told her about the news. We were both sad.

The next day, the cause of Jackson’s death was revealed, and no one was incredibly surprised. It was the same exact thing that had happened to so many of my clients. Opiates? Benzos? Administered by a doctor? In ever-increasing doses? Yep. Sounds about right.

While Jackson’s doctor was truly whackadoo, the sad truth is that many other physicians all over the country prescribe opiates with little to no respect for what the medications might do to their patients. Percoset, Oxycontin, (generic form — oxycodone) and all the other opiate-based medications are potentially harmful medications that are simply not being regulated properly. And, as a result, people are dying.

Don’t fool yourselves, people. Oxycodone is basically over the counter heroin. Just because it comes in a bottle with nicely typed instructions doesn’t mean that it’s any less deadly or dependence forming. When a doctor gives someone a medication, people think that it’s safe. They’re not thinking about possibly spiraling into a world of depression, dependence, and even an overall decreased tolerance to pain. (Yes, opiates have the marked potential to do all of these things.) Opiates can possibly help people with chronic pain, but it’s not a miracle medication, and it’s certainly something that needs to be regulated more carefully.

One thing that reports seem to agree upon is that Prince’s use of opiates seems to have been in an effort to stave off chronic pain. However, if he was taking these medications with any sort of regularity, he wasn’t addicted to the medications; he was dependent on them. There’s a crucial difference. Dependence comes when an individual has increased tolerance to their medication, and they can’t get off of it without some nasty side effects. Ever seen Trainspotting? Well, it’s not just heroin that causes horrific withdrawal symptoms — it’s all opiates.

In a phase where an individual is dependent on a substance, their tolerance increases steadily as well. They don’t get the same effect from the same amount of medication. And in a case like Prince’s where he was suffering from intense, debilitating pain, he was likely to be increasing his dose with his doctor on a semi-regular basis. But the body can only take so much.

Unfortunately, it seems as if Prince succumbed to his pills, but not for kicks. It was in an effort to live a normal life without pain. However, opiates are not miracle medications. Quite the opposite. They are drugs that kill without a second thought.

The takeaway from Prince’s death shouldn’t be a sensational drubbing of him in the press — it should be a rallying cry for change in the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

Prince’s life was ended by something that is completely legal in all 50 states. Instead of dragging his name through the press and reducing him to yet another drug-addled starlet, we need to take this opportunity to make a change and prevent these types of tragedies from happening in the future.