Anna Nicole Smith: Pharmacists Warned Doctors That Prescriptions Were "Pharmaceutical Suicide"

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles pharmacist told Anna Nicole Smith's internist that the drugs the internist prescribed to the model after her son died were "pharmaceutical suicide," according to unsealed documents written by state officials.

Smith's doctors were warned about prescription drugs by three pharmacists, according to unsealed affidavits obtained Monday by the Los Angeles Times.

The pharmacist refused to fill the prescriptions and later recalled thinking, "They are going to kill her with this."

The documents are part of an investigation of the role that Smith's doctors, psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and internist Sandeep Kapoor, had in her overdose death in February 2007.

The physicians and Smith's boyfriend and attorney Howard K. Stern pleaded not guilty May 13 to conspiring to illegally provide her with controlled substances. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next month.

In court papers filed last week, prosecutors said they plan to call the model's bodyguard and Larry Birkhead, the father of her daughter, Dannielynn, as witnesses.

The documents also cite evidence that both physicians crossed professional boundaries by having sexual contact with their famous patient. Calls to attorneys representing Eroshevich and Kapoor were not immediately returned Monday.

The first request for drugs for the former Playboy Playmate came five days after her son died and asked for two sedatives, 300 tablets of methadone, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory drug and four bottles of a strong painkiller.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

Comments

[Richard Rafter]

08:00 AM on 09/22/2009

Personal responsibility, embrace it.

[AnnfromCA]

09:33 AM on 09/22/2009

No kidding.

[confuseddemocrat]

06:56 AM on 09/22/2009

Polypharmacy......though it often becomes the center of media and public attention after the death of celebrity; it is actually a huge problem among the elderly and chronically ill, who often take more than 6 medications at one time per day

Medication related deaths are often caused by fatal drug interaction which cause either respiratory depression or cardiac arrhythmias /arrests

This is one reason that a national electronic health care database which can be accessed by medical professionals is essential and should be part of any health care reform bill

[mzzanthrope]

07:44 AM on 09/22/2009

Except that celebrities, the wealthy and the fraudulent use aliases and different addresses. The database will not highlight problems if it can not link these various names together, etc.

At least in this circumstance, the pharmacy knew the game and refused to supply drugs. The same can not be said for the pharmacy that provided hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drugs to Michael Jackson. They are more culpable, in my opinion, than the doctors who prescribed them.

[roshni]

09:25 AM on 09/22/2009

Also, celebrities pay doctors off to obtain what they want. They are surrounded by hangers on.

[Teckwreck]

08:37 AM on 09/22/2009

If we had pharmacies who could prepare compounds instead of pill vending machines, then the elderly or the ill could have their needed medications in a single dosage which would be safer for them.

[Charlotte Waldo]

06:55 AM on 09/22/2009

Could someone fix the link on the front page? It says Docters, not Doctors and it is completely distracting. I wouldn't have even read this story if the headline was spelled correctly. Maybe that was the idea, to lure us to reading this article with bad spelling.

Now that I did read the article, I really hope that these Doctors who are playing Russian Roulette with their patients lives are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[mofmars333]

06:31 AM on 09/22/2009

My Mother died due to the same.

I begged her doctor to stop giving her the drugs. He stopped & she hated me for it & found another to give uppers & downers to her, even in her obvious unhealthy state.

Dead at 43.

My little sister was 10 & still needed her. She never got over the trauma of seeing Mom be dysfunctional & dying a horrid death & now she's in the same boat.

In fact, all four of my sisters have drug problems & I'm terrified of them & don't even take aspirin.

The death certificate said her death was due to pneumonia.

[mzzanthrope]

07:46 AM on 09/22/2009

Sorry mofmars.

I hope that you remain strong, and that the outcome for your sisters will be a better one than your mother's.

[emmabovary]

05:10 AM on 09/22/2009

Anna Nicole was an adult woman, not a school girl. She knew the RX drugs were dangerous,but didn't care.According to Larry Birkhead's testimony at Bahamas Inquest, Anna gave Ecstasy and methadone to her son Daniel. He was also on antidepressants. Daniel was in hospital in June 2006. for Valim abuse.There' no excuse for such behavior.

[tamdayc]

05:06 AM on 09/22/2009

sad. this must be stopped.