Prescription to Die
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Elvis Presley
Presley's penchant for prescription drugs seems to have began during his service in the army in the late 1950s, and then spiraled out of control in the '60s, when he was most in demand. He would take uppers to get through a night's performance, and downers to go to sleep. He was such a canny addict, that he studied the Physician's Desk Reference, and would often fake symptoms while visiting doctors in different cities, soliciting prescriptions from each. He was twice admitted to rehabs in the 1970s for exhaustion; in reality, he had nearly fatally overdosed.
At the time of his death he had a cocktail of drugs in his system that would seem unbelievable: painkillers Demerol, Morphine; tranquilizers, Valium and Placidyl; antihistamine, Chloropheniramine; Codeine, Ethinamate (a sleeping pill), Quaaludes and an unidentified barbiturate.
Ironically, as a RollingStone.com's biography notes: "He remained devoutly spiritual, never drank alcohol, and publicly denounced the use of recreational drugs."
Like other addicts, Elvis had a trusted doctor, Dr. George Nichopoulous, known as "Dr. Nick." The doctor wrote as many as 10,000 prescriptions in 1977, but would frequently give Presley placebos, because he knew Presley's appetite for drugs was too large, and generally monitored his health. He was formally charged in 1980 with 14 counts of abusing his license to prescribe. Though he was acquitted, the case was reopened 12 years later, and his license was revoked. In June 2009, Dr. Nick held an auction in Las Vegas of Presley's actual prescription pill bottles, with the original pills inside, causing many to ask who had truly been the ill person in the relationship.
