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His addiction was fueled by different doctors.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Aug 30, 2022
In a new TMZ documentary about musical icon Michael Jackson, a doctor revealed that Jackson had multiple fake IDs to be able to collect drugs from different medical providers.
The documentary, titled 'TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson,' is set to explore Jackson's addiction and his last final months before his death in June 2009.
According to the New York Post, the assistant chief coroner for LA County, Ed Winter, gave a testimony where he claimed the singer had created 19 false aliases to collect different drugs.
The allegation was then corroborated by Jackson's plastic surgeon, Dr. Harry Glassman, who claimed that Jackson "had multiple, different doctors that he was involved with."
The documentary implies Michael Jackson was responsible for his own death.
"The way that Michael went about getting all these drugs was doctor shopping," Glassman claimed. "He would go to ‘Doctor A’ and ask for a sedative, and then he would go to ‘Doctor B’ and may ask for the same one.
"Michael is responsible, to a great extent, for his own demise, but he certainly had a lot of help from the medical community.”
Jackson was found unresponsive in his Los Angeles home after suffering from a cardiac arrest due to the anesthetic propofol, which had been provided to the 'Beat It' singer by his primary physician, Conrad Murray.
His death had been ruled a homicide, and Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's former physician was sentenced to four years in prison but was released after serving two years.
Murray, who is also set to appear in the TMZ documentary, claimed that he "will always love Michael." The former doctor also touched on how it felt to receive much of the public's hatred surrounding Jackson's death, calling it "not right."
He claimed that other doctors had also given Jackson drugs throughout the years, and were, therefore, complicit in the King of Pop's death.
“It was not a big deal — he had been using it for decades, different doctors had given it to him from all around the world … and they allowed him to sometimes inject the medicine,” Murray, who routinely administered it to Jackson, explained. “He was able to push the propofol himself, and the doctors allowed him to do it, and that was OK.”
Jackson, who passed away at the age of 50, was addicted to drugs for most of his professional career. In 1984, the singer suffered both second and third-degree burns to his scalp during a pyrotechnic disaster while filming a Pepsi commercial and was given painkillers to recover.
In the years that followed, Jackson battled with drugs, which took over his entire life.
“I became increasingly more dependent on the painkillers to get me through the days of my tour,” Jackson said in archived audio, explaining why he canceled part of his 1993 “Dangerous” world tour and announced that he was going into rehab.
Despite seeking out help, Jackson's addiction only got worse after meeting Hollywood dermatologist Arnold Klein, who passed away in 2015. Before his death, Klein admitted to giving Jackson opioid Demerol along with other substances.
“There were times he would write prescriptions for things that had nothing to do with what we were treating them for,” Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife, and former assistant to Klein said in the documentary.
“He would write prescriptions that were not conducive to what a dermatologist would normally write a prescription for.”
Klein had also been aware of Jackson's multiple fake IDs to obtain drugs and kept a special notebook keeping track of which prescriptions went to which fake identity.
In the documentary, Murray claimed that he hadn't been aware of Jackson and Klein's inappropriate doctor-patient relationship.
“He made it look as though I was his sole physician … If I had known that Michael was going to a dermatologist’s office or any doctor and being shot up or dripped up with opioids on a daily basis, there would be a two-step dance," Murray said.
"One, he has a problem; two, I’ll take you to where you need to be treated — and if you fail to do that, I am out."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.