Tom Petty

[doombass]

Ohh, he masked it well and ironically that eventually led to an early passing.

[Pilgrim]

I think his fans would have preferred him to cancel the tour and stick around for a while.

[Dave W]

I think his fans would have preferred him to cancel the tour and stick around for a while.

No doubt. I think about that interview where he talked about retiring and spending time with his grandkids. He should have done it sooner. His recorded music will be with us either way, but better to disappoint some fans and still be here,

[westen44]

It's a mistake Tom Petty was never able to learn from, but maybe others can.  I think of the phone call George Harrison gave him in the middle of the night telling him about Roy Orbison's death.  Tom was obviously grateful to still be alive.  Now all of that seems to be beside the point. 

[slinkp]

Tragic. Petty could've learned from Prince. Same drugs! Both performing through pain.

[Denis]

The same basic think happened to Rick Danko. Bad car accident in '68 or '69 left him with terrible chronic pain which led to drug addiction and alcoholism.
It cost him his life.
We could do a better job on this issue, I think.

[uwe]

Michael Jackson, Prince, Tom Petty ..., with all due respect you guys need to rethink the free availability/over-prescription of painkillers and their popular (mis)use in the US of A. It's tragic enough if someone dies from a disease or chooses to end his own life, but inadvertently dying from an overdose of self-administered painkillers is bitter. 

[Dave W]

Michael Jackson, Prince, Tom Petty ..., with all due respect you guys need to rethink the free availability/over-prescription of painkillers and their popular (mis)use in the US of A. It's tragic enough if someone dies from a disease or chooses to end his own life, but inadvertently dying from an overdose of self-administered painkillers is bitter. 

Nobody forced them to take these drugs. As sad and tragic as their deaths were, these men were responsible for their own actions.

[doombass]

But the problem the way I see it is when they gradually increase their doses, they are more prone to make bad judgements. Along with availability and big quantities you're more likely to increase the dose, especially when you're in pain. So what if the supply is regulated and limited so you get only what you need within a specific time period? You would know that if you double the dose one day you're left out the next.

Another problem is when dealing with pain and painkillers. Painkillers are often the difference between staying at home taking care of yourself and going to work and make a living despite the pain. Those people prescribing painkillers need to at least bring out their good judgements sometimes. In Tom Petty's case it is obvious to me (though I'm certainly no Medical Doctor) that a broken hip needs treatment and rest as priority, not eating drugs and doing stage shows.

[Pilgrim]

The US has a huge painkiller drug problem, as we all know. Part of the problem is pill mills that crank them out by the thousands for profit. The opiates were pitched and sold to the health care system as safe and unlikely to create addiction. I don't suppose that the big pharma people lied, did they? Surely we can trust them...?

There's a problem with limiting legitimate supplies, too.  Tom Petty isn't going to make a trip to Walgreens every Saturday to pick up 7 pills when he's on tour...or recording out of town. Same for people who travel in business.

You would HOPE that people taking significant numbers of painkillers would have the sense to stay in contact with their doctor or have a family member help them manage the treatment. But we're all adults who want to run our own lives, and that doesn't happen much. And people who have any addictive tendency seem to fall into that trap easily.

I don't have solutions. I lament the situation. Personally, I'm aware of every Tylenol or Advil or Alleve I take, when the last one was, and what my pattern of use is. But I still use them more than I used to.

[uwe]

If there is such a thing as a non-addictive painkiller, I haven't seen it yet. Opium, heroin, morphium, valium, paracetamol, ibuprofen, opiates ... what have you were all once deemed non-addictive, none of them were/are.



At the last gig I saw him (couple of years ago, but this decade), he was stoned out of his mind, laughing and grinning deliriously through the set, yet never missing a note. I wonder now whether smoking grass or pot was already part of his self-medication that led him to not come around here no more. 

[uwe]

Nobody forced them to take these drugs. As sad and tragic as their deaths were, these men were responsible for their own actions.

People do lots of things bad for them if you let them. Still, we use red lights at traffic crossings so they don't run into each other (their fault if they do!), we try to minimize dangerous situations and scenarios though you can't shelter a whole population from every evil or danger without cutting into personal freedoms; I know your libertarian angst, Dave!  But there is no Amendment - last I heard or read - that guarantees overabundance of painkillers for people who can handle it at the cost of those who can't. Jackson, Prince and Petty probably lived in most ways a more sheltered life than we all do, being the VIPs they were, they could afford expensive doctors ... If that did not save them, why not give curbing supply a thought?

[4stringer77]

I don't think the U.S. has exclusivity on overdoses from pain killers. The percentage of famous pop stars hailing from America is a more significant factor than the petty notion that U.S. drug laws are somehow insufficient. As famous and wealthy as they were, they could have acquired what they wanted any place. They might have even stocked up on meds from Mexico, who knows? On the bright side, at least Richard and Kyle Petty haven't left us.

[Dave W]

Whether they're overprescribed or not is beside the point. Individual responsibility is the point. You still have the choice to accept or reject medication or other recommended treatment. I'm not condemning these stars, far from it, but I'm not blaming anyone or anything else. Their decisions were their own.

[uwe]

Now don't revert to type, Dave!



Or I'll have to!