U.S. - Tom Petty died of accidental drug overdose, medical examiner says

[S.J.B.]

Tom Petty died of accidental drug overdose, medical examiner says
Ralph Ellis
CNN
January 20th, 2018

Musician Tom Petty died of an accidental drug overdose of several medications, a statement from his family, posted on tompetty.com, and a news release from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Friday.

The family statement, which also was posted on Facebook, said Petty, 66, had suffered several ailments before his October 2 death.

"Despite this painful injury he insisted on keeping his commitment to his fans and he toured for 53 dates with a fractured hip and, as he did, it worsened to a more serious injury.

"On the day he died he was informed his hip had graduated to a full-on break and it is our feeling that the pain was simply unbearable and was the cause for his over use of medication," according to the statement from Dana Petty, his wife, and Adria Petty, his daughter.

The medical examiner's news release said the autopsy found these drugs in Petty's system: fentanyl, oxycodone, acetyl fentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl, which are opioids; temazepam and alprazolam, which are sedatives; and citalopram, an antidepressant.

Read the full story here.

 

[cduggles]

This story makes me angry because Tom Petty has acetylfentanyl in his system. Not happening from fentanyl metabolism unless my chemistry is really lousy now.

Despropionyl fentanyl is a minor byproduct of fentanyl metabolism, but unlikely that it would be the only byproduct found (I defer to the more knowledgeable: chemists and, well, most other people on this topic and the wondrous properties of the human body and toxicology.)

I don't know why people can't just say that he died with fentanyl analogues in his system. Instead, let's put more pressure on doctors not to prescribe pain meds.

Gah!

 

[S.J.B.]

This story makes me angry because Tom Petty has acetylfentanyl in his system. Not happening from fentanyl metabolism unless my chemistry is really lousy now.

Despropionyl fentanyl is a minor byproduct of fentanyl metabolism, but unlikely that it would be the only byproduct found (I defer to the more knowledgeable: chemists and, well, most other people on this topic and the wondrous properties of the human body and toxicology.)

Yeah, the acetylfentanyl could not have been a fentanyl metabolite. He must have consumed acetylfentanyl and fentanyl, and the despropionylfentanyl would have been a metabolite of both.

 

[Scrofula]

There's various alkylated fentanyls advertised online, including acetyl-fent (Along with methoxy-, isobutyrl- etc.) and they do seem to appear in tox screens.

So, he didn't OD from fentanyl patch experiments.

The family assures you he was in pain, and so he was on scripted painkillers. And the coroner doesn't release the obvious illicit sourcing. And that, folks, is why you can't trust autopsy reports from celebrities who have rich family members.

The coroner being part of the Sheriff's Dept., an elected position.

(PS: LA county might be different, but most places you can be a medical examiner with no medical training at all).