Protecting Heath Ledger, Endangering young America

The headlines all say Accidental Pill Overdose Killed Ledger.

They are wrong.

The NYC medical examiner never said that. Instead, "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone [Oxycontin], hydrocodone [Vicodin], diazepam [Valium], temazepam [Restoril], alprazolam [Xanax] and doxylamine [Unisom]..."
"We have concluded that the manner of death is an accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications," she said.

An objective reading reveals this was no "accidental overdose". They only ruled that this wasn't a suicide, but clearly implicate abuse of prescription medication. You think it was an accident that he opened six different prescription bottles? No doctor would ever recommend taking these medications in combination, as each has an additive effect on the others. You can only depress the CNS so much. But still, after receiving this report, his family releases the following statement:

"While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."

Once you've taken the prescribed amount of any of the above medications, taking one more pill is excessive, notwithstanding any prescription. Abuse, not accidental. I empathize with the family, but if the message given to the public and his young fan base by them and the media at large is that his death was an unexpected and accidental outcome - ignoring his abusive, drug seeking behavior - his death will likely be no deterrent.