So, awaiting final toxicology, it has now been reported in the New York Times that Prince was toxic. I can relate. I was toxic too.
I too, waited anxiously for a prescription to be filled for the opiate I was secretly addicted to.
I too, took too many at once. I too, sought to kill emotional and physical pain with pain killers. Kill it. Make it stop.
Too many of our fellow humans, famous, infamous, and not famous at all, have sought the same relief. The symbolism of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," an anthem of addiction, seems more poignant as now it is a purple rain, another loss to drug addiction.
I am one of the lucky ones as I have been in recovery from opiate addiction for over 17 years.
It seems now that the governmental body, the AMA, the FDA and the media are starting to address the rampant epidemic of opiate addiction. There have been reclassifications and attempts at reigning in the overprescription of opiates.
Most people who become addicted, like me, do so after a prescription for a painkiller following a medical procedure. Once the phenomenon of craving sets in, it is often too late.
I, like all of you, mourn the passing of a great artist but I also mourn the passing of potential artists past and present, caught in this deadly vise.
Let's work harder, look closer and do everything we can not to enable and in doing so, disable, our loved ones who are ill.
This is what it sounds like when we all cry.