TMZ & CNN reporting death at Prince's Home.

[dragonflies]

He wrote Nothing Compares 2 U, Manic Monday and lots of other great songs

[Soapsuds]

Manic Monday was another great song that I love but was unaware Prince wrote it. Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead gives me chills….the video is  in the top 10 in iTunes.

[Cheap21]

Yeah I read this blind item about a celeb and people guessed Prince. Days later, Prince "dies" of a flu

 

http://mediatakeout.com/301361/shock-report-insider-claims-that-a-very-popular-african-american-celebrity-is-stricken-with-aids-not-hiv-the-full-avkage.html

 

 

[dragonflies]

It's being reported he was treated for an overdose of Percocet a week before his death
 

 

http://www.tvguide.com/news/prince-was-reportedly-treated-for-a-drug-overdose-shortly-before-his-death/?ftag=TVG_Facebook

[DramatistDreamer]

Apparently, Prince had hip surgery, about 2014 or so.  Perhaps he had residual pain?  That cane/scepter that he was sometimes seen with may have been more than just for style purposes.

 

Percocet is no joke!  A doctor once prescribed it for my Mom after surgery and she stopped taking it before the bottle was finished.  Looking back, I'm glad she defied doctor's orders and got off it before the bottle was finished because Percocet is highly addictive!

[Soapsuds]

What is percocet? And what is it used for?

[DramatistDreamer]

Very strong drug used as a painkiller.  I think it is formulated as a combination of acetaminophen (main ingredient in aspirin) and oxycodone.  The acetaminophen is for mild to moderate level of pain but my guess is that the oxycodone is the much more powerful (and addictive) ingredient in Percocet.  Percocet really is the brand name.  

 

Many people now blame the rampant prescription of painkillers like Oxycontin, Oxycodone and Percocet for the drug epidemic raging through the U.S.  It is said that when doctors were urged to curtail prescribing these drugs and they eventually did, there was already a significant population of addicts who then had to find a new way to get high.  That and the fallen prices of heroin created a perfect storm for the addiction/overdose epidemic that afflicts predominantly suburban America.

 

I came across an interesting, somewhat strange interview with Prince from the New Yorker:

 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/24/soup-with-prince

[Juliajms]

I really had no idea percocet was so addictive.  They gave me a prescription after my C-Section. I don't remember feeling high, but now that I know about this I would ask about alternatives, next time I need a pain killer. 

Addiction has taken so many people from us, both famous and not. I wish someone would come up with a good treatment because what we have doesn't seem to work that well. Plus we made it hard for most people to get what little treatment is available.

 

Even though the flu can be more of a killer than a lot of people realize, I admit I didn't quite buy that a rich, famous man of 57 died of just the average flu.

 

 

[marceline]

I'm going to wait until we get a cause of death. I've never seen anything to indicate that Prince ever used drugs at all and if he had full blown AIDS, he was the healthiest looking AIDS patient I've ever seen. Flu like symptoms could mean anything including any number of infections. Percocet is made with acetaminophen which can tear your liver apart with even a minor overdose. (This American Life's story about acetaminophen that made me stop using it entirely.)

[Vee]

It's equally possible that he didn't get proper treatment for hip issues - something about Jehovah's Witnesses and transfusions? - and was self-medicating instead, which would be a very bad idea. Either way, I don't think this was a case of Prince being some secret drug addict and ODing on recreational substances. This was clearly a serious medical issue.

[DramatistDreamer]

Yeah, I don't wish to speculate either.  I am also waiting to see what the full autopsy, tissue and toxicology tests say.

 

The Percocet comment was only in regards to the reports of that overdose. It's entirely possible that the overdose was a complete accident.  The Coroner's office has already said that there was no suspicion of suicide, so I'm thinking that this reasoning may also apply to Prince's previous emergency visit to the hospital when he was released hours later.

 

@Juliajms, I really believe that different drugs can vary widely in its effects on people.  I believe some people are predisposed to addiction.  I remember years ago, when the prescription drug crisis was at its height, and people were robbing pharmacies, so desperate for drugs, I saw interviews of men and women who claimed they were talking a dozen Percocet a day or were popping Oxycodone like Chiclets and I couldn't understand how their systems had such tolerance for that high dose of drugs!  I gave 2 Percocet to my Mother during her surgical recovery period and she was pretty much relegated to the sofa for at least an hour to 90 minutes.  After about a week, she really couldn't stand the feeling the pills left her with and said "No mas".  

 

Prince seemed pretty healthy to me too.  I never seen any 57 year old drug addicts that look that good.  Rick James certainly didn't look very good in the years before he died.  I read that Sheila E. said that he was in a lot of pain from all the jumping and dancing stunts he performed on stage over decades but he hid it from the public.  I know he's had surgery and I discovered that the cane he sometimes used was not merely ornamental.

 

And from the interviews I've seen over the last few years, Prince always seemed very clear, very thoughtful and present in his conversations.  I'd be very surprised if it were drugs.

 

[Khan]

Imagine Prince standing at your door, asking whether you know Jesus.  I would be like, "Is this really happening?".

[marceline]

 

I thought about that a lot when I heard he was a Jehovah's Witness. I could see myself opening the door to say, "Y'all need to y'all need to get the hell off my...whaaaaa?!"

 

[Khan]

And you know, Jehovah's Witnesses often like to travel in pairs -- so, yep, there's Michael Jackson, too.  Too fuckin' much.

[quartermainefan]

He looked way too good to be a drug addict.  If he overdosed on anything it was an accident.   You look at him even recently and there isn't that much change from 10, even 20 years ago.