Michael Jackson and pharmaceutical drugs
Michael Jackson: could addiction to pharmaceutical drugs explain the behaviors?
Top Story: Is Michael Jackson capable of having committed the crime of which he is accused?
The trial of Michael Jackson, the extraordinary entertainer who began a bizarre transformation in appearance and behaviors some two decades ago, has begun. It would be shocking that someone who seems so gentle, caring and concerned for the welfare of children could be accused of committing heinous acts of child abuse, were it not for the role that alcoholism may have played throughout Jackson’s life.
Alcoholism takes its toll gradually. However, in the case of entertainers and others in the public eye, we need to keep in mind Lucy Barry Robe’s admonition that the higher the social status of the addict, the greater the enabling, which includes hiding the addiction from others. The greater the enabling, the less likely the adoring public will learn about the addiction, until it becomes so overwhelmingly obvious that no one can hide it. Multi-billionaire Howard Hughes provided such an example: by the time the public began to get wind of his misbehaviors, Hughes was reported to have acted as bizarrely as Jackson, albeit in his own style. The public missed the “gradualism” of the private toll taken by alcoholism, seen clearly only by the enablers.
So it has likely been with Michael Jackson. Insiders have known for years that he refers to white wine as “Jesus juice” and red wine as “Jesus blood.” Close persons have likely long been aware that he usually drinks wine out of soda cans in an effort to hide the consumption. His handlers have known of various admissions into and “graduations” from rehab for addiction to pain killers, including Demerol and morphine. Any heroin addict will, in a pinch, substitute these drugs, as well as Oxycontin and Vicodin. Any Demerol, Oxycontin or Vicodin addict will use heroin if the pharmaceutical is unavailable. Like Rush Limbaugh, Jackson is, essentially, a heroin addict, even if the media refuses to identify him as such.
Jackson has been reported to get so inebriated on airplanes while gulping “soda,” a former business adviser asked Jackson’s security detail how wine could throw so big a punch. They explained he combined pills with the booze. Since Jackson reportedly has owed as much as $62,000 to a Beverly Hills pharmacy we might conclude that the quantity of such pills is staggering.
Many of Jackson’s defenders suggest that while he may have undergone 50 facial reconstructions and once spent $70,000 on surveillance equipment so he could spy on his own staff (his entire house is wired), he couldn’t possibly abuse children. They claim that although he has acted like a 12-year old on a number of occasions and can be very vindictive, destroying the reputations and lives of others if given a chance, he would never take advantage of the children he so dearly loves. Yet recovering addicts with ten or fifteen years’ sobriety report they were capable of any behavior while using. Michael Jackson, then, while not necessarily guilty, is capable of having committed the crimes of which he is accused.
The greater the position of power, the greater the damage that can be inflicted. Jackson has met presidents, CEO’s and billionaires who have reportedly been awestruck by Michael Jackson. Consider his power over a 12-year old.
Sadly, as is true of most addicts, there were likely hundreds of instances for which handlers, family, friends and law enforcers could have acted to stem the inevitable progression into what is now a fairly obvious latter-stage addiction. To think that the Michael Jackson of twenty years ago could have turned into what he is today boggles the mind. Yet psychotropic drug addiction respects no boundaries either in terms of who is afflicted or the resulting behaviors.
There is another unfortunate aspect to the case. As is common in the criminal justice system, there may be more than one addict involved in the proceedings. Most healthy parents would be at best reluctant to allow their child to be alone in a bedroom with a grown man, a fact to which all parties have stipulated. While by no means were all the parents who allowed their children to visit Jackson’s Santa Barbara Neverland compound addicts, behavioral clues to addiction can be found in one or both parents of the accusing child. The family sued J. C. Penney several years ago for inflicting physical, emotional and mental abuse after being pursued by security guards, who claimed the boy walked out with clothes for which no one had paid, with the father following. One month after winning the lawsuit and over $100,000, the mother charged the husband with spousal abuse and filed for divorce.
Runners-up for top story of the month: Juan Manuel Alvarez, who drove his Jeep Grand Cherokee onto Los Angeles Metrolink tracks in an effort to kill himself but instead killed 12 innocents, reported by his estranged wife Carmelita to be “using drugs” and having been in and out of rehab twice, was described in the media as having had a history of “mental problems and legal problems” (no, he has a history of addiction). Gilbert Cash, 38, chairman of the Chumash Indian gaming commission responsible for overseeing more than $1 billion per year in wagering at the Chumash Santa Barbara County casino, despite having filed for bankruptcy four times, who is now under investigation by the California attorney general’s office and the National Indian Gaming Commission for a conviction in November to a felony charge of beating and choking his estranged wife, after having been ruled in December as “fit to serve.” (Those who so ruled qualify in the “Under watch” section.) Former “Growing Pains” child star Tracey Gold, whose SUV overturned, injuring her husband and two of her three children, pleaded guilty to DUI. Singer Lynn Anderson, winner of a 1970 Grammy for “Rose Garden,” who punched a police officer after being arrested for shoplifting a Harry Potter DVD; just two months ago, she was charged with DUI. Pop star June Pointer, involved in a “program I really like – and it’s working,” who reported that while she was a functional addict for decades, her life began to unravel; boyfriend Joel Coigney, whom she was charged with beating up last year, says “she’s a changed person” and has asked to marry her. Here’s hoping Ms. Pointer stays the course.
Under watch: O.J. Simpson’s daughter Sydney Simpson who, after sucker punching two girls who were “in her way” and screaming profanities at officers asking her to quiet down, was arrested for disorderly conduct. Former “ChiPs” star Erik Estrada, who now uses his celebrity status to hawk overpriced land in the middle of nowhere for National Recreational Properties, Inc., run by Jeffrey Frieden and Robert Friedman, in Internet and television English and Spanish infomercials (guess who the victims are). California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who resigned over accusations of having improperly used public funds for personal gain, was also reported to have maintained “an abusive working environment” in complaints alleging sexual harassment filed by Shelley’s employees, which have since been “mysteriously” lost.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: we give the benefit of the doubt by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. One absolute prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain. To give sobriety a chance, the enabling must stop.