The rest of the story. Very Interesting! Yes, a Tylenol (Acetaminophen) overdose can cause liver and kidney damage, which clearly makes Percocet a dangerous opiate based drug to abuse. I can understand why Prince had a phobia of doctors since doctor can often misdiagnose illnesses and prescribe treatments that don’t work, produce unpleasant side effects or even make the illness worse. Nevertheless trying to medicate yourself can frequently have disastrous results as well, as we have seen. Also it appears that Prince’s former dope dealer has more practical knowledge on opiate base pain killers than your average physician or pharmacist. Last, people are a contradiction aren’t they? How can they can be puritanical and abstinent about some things and still abuse other substances? It is amazing how some people can keep their drug use a secret for years. Even from friends and family.
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EXCLUSIVE: Prince's former drug dealer tells how the legend spent $40,000 at a time on six-month supplies of Dilaudid pills and Fentanyl patches - highly addictive opioid pain killers - for 25 years
- Prince's former drug dealer, who asked to be named only as Doctor D, revealed the full extent of the late-star's secret drug addiction
- Doctor D revealed the singer would spend up to $40,000 a time on six-month supplies of Dilaudid pills and Fentanyl patches
- Prince regularly bought drugs from Doctor D between 1984 and 2008
- The dealer said the musician suffered crippling stage fright and could not get on stage and perform without the drugs
- Doctor D said: 'He was always a pill man - that's why nobody ever saw him do drugs. He never shot up, or snorted cocaine'
- Prince was found dead on Thursday at his home in Minnesota just days after sources claimed he overdosed on the opiate Percocet
- See more of the latest news on Prince as he dies aged 57
By Ryan Parry In Chanhassen, Minnesota and Emma Foster In Coachella Valley, California and Martin Gould In Chanhassen, Minnesota, For Dailymail.com
Prince's former drug dealer has revealed the full extent of the late-star's secret drug addiction - telling how the superstar was hooked on powerful opiates for over 25 years.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Online, the performer's long-time dealer - who asked to be named only as Doctor D - revealed the singer would spend up to $40,000 a time on six-month supplies of Dilaudid pills and Fentanyl patches - both highly addictive opioid pain killers.
Prince, who was found dead on Thursday at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was secretly cremated in an intimate ceremony at a nondescript funeral home in Minneapolis shortly after an autopsy was completed on Friday, Radar reports.
Prince's sister Tyka Nelson and another family member reportedly spent a few minutes saying goodbye at the First Memorial Waterston Chapel before the musician was cremated.
His death came just days after sources claimed he overdosed on the opiate Percocet.
Doctor D said the musician, who he described as 'majorly addicted', regularly bought drugs from him between 1984 and 2008.
The dealer, often to the stars, said Prince suffered crippling stage fright and could not get on stage and perform without the drugs - but had a phobia of doctors so could not obtain a prescription legally.
Tragically, Doctor D suggests it could have been a physician that unknowingly contributed to Prince's death - by prescribing strong pain killers to the singer for his hip condition without knowing the extent of his secret opiate addiction.
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He said: 'I first met Prince in 1984 while he was filming the movie Purple Rain and he was already majorly addicted to opiates - I didn't hook him on drugs he was already a really heavy user.
'In the beginning he would buy speed as well as Dilaudid.
'I would sell him black beauties which were a black pill and cross tops which were also speed pills.
'He would use that as a counter balance to get back up again from taking opiates.
'That lasted for a couple of years then he would just buy Dilaudid, which is a heroin based opiate. It is highly addictive.
'As far as I knew he never took heroin - as that would leave you out of it for days whereas Dilaudid gives you an energy buzz as well as making you feel relaxed - so he preferred it.
'He needed the drugs because he was so nervous - he could be nervous in a room with just five people in it.
'He was scared to go out in public, he was scared to talk to people and didn't like to go on stage - he had the worst case of stage fright I'd ever seen.
'A lot of performers rely on drugs to make them feel confident on stage but he was by far the worse.
'Plus he was always paranoid about doctors so he wouldn't ask them for help - he had a phobia of them.
'I was surprised when I heard he had been picking up prescriptions before he died.'
Prince made several trips to a Walgreens pharmacy in the days before he died and was even photographed outside the store hours before he was pronounced dead.
It is not known whether he was picking up Percocet or any other prescription. And according to sources, Prince was treated by doctors for a Percocet overdose just six days before he died.
The 57-year-old's private plane had to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, on April 15, so he could be rushed to hospital.
Doctors there had to administer a 'save shot' - an emergency injection usually administered in dire circumstances to drug overdose victims, TMZ reported.
An autopsy was conducted on Friday and Prince's body was released to his family. However, authorities said it could be weeks before the cause of death is released.
Meanwhile, an expert on Saturday, said his death is likely to have been the result of a drug overdose.
Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist who is not linked to the case, told NBC's TODAY: 'I would give overwhelming odds that, tragically, this is a drug death.'
He said: 'When you rule out foul play, when there is no history of any kind of significant disease, when you rule out any kind of intervention, anything of an environmental nature, you come down to an autopsy that is essentially negative and that probably means drugs.'
Wecht said the emergency landing of Prince's private jet lends further merit to the idea that his death was due to drugs.
'I cannot think of any medical or pathological condition that fits that kind of scenario, with incredible ups and downs, other than drugs,' he added.
Prince bought extra large supplies before his famous performances at the Miami Superbowl (above) in 2007 and before his 2008 Coachella appearance, his former drug dealer said
Doctor D - who has built up a vast knowledge of opioid pain killers over the years - believes that if indeed Prince was being prescribed Percocet by doctors - the combination of Tylenol and opiates in the drug may have killed him.
'If Prince was just taking Dilaudid he would still be alive,' he said.
'It has less side effects than other opiate drugs such as Percocet but doctors don't like to prescribe it because it's one of the heaviest drugs.
'The problem with Percocet is that it is an opiate mixed with Tylenol - but he would have been taking much more than the recommended dose because he had developed a tolerance to opiates over the years.
'When you take that much Tylenol it can cause major problems - especially with your kidneys.
'But doctors would have freaked out if they knew the extent of Prince's drug problem and wouldn't know what to do.
'He self medicated for years and was fine - so it wouldn't have been the opiates that killed him but the Tylenol.
'So perversely the doctors who thought they were helping him may have hurt him by prescribing Percocet.
'Also if they did have to give him a save shot when he overdosed like everybody is saying - that removes all traces of drugs from your system so he would have started to go into withdrawal and would have had to take a lot of drugs to feel okay again - which also could have killed him.
'You can't just stop taking these drugs when you have taken them for so long.
'But without knowing his drug history doctors wouldn't have known that.
'It explains why he was spotted looking nervous and pacing around at the pharmacy in the week before his death.'
Doctor D, originally from Los Angeles but now based in the Coachella Valley area, California, first met Prince while working as part of the road crew at a concert.
He soon became his dealer of choice whenever he was in the Los Angeles area.
Prince would hire him to work backstage at gigs so he could have a constant supply of drugs without arousing any suspicion from those around him.
Doctor D said he watched him develop a major tolerance to the drugs over the years - regularly taking two to three times the recommended dose.
He also began to use patches of Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid approximately 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 40 to 50 times more potent than heroin.
The patches are worn like nicotine patches and provide a 72 hour constant release of the drug through the skin into the blood stream.
'He would wear the patch as well as taking the Dilaudid - so it's the equivalent of smoking while you have a nicotine patch on,' Doctor D explained.
'It's like having a constant supply of drugs - they sell for about $200-300 per patch.
'They come in boxes of five and I would sell Prince 20 boxes at a time.
'You can also smoke them but I only saw him do that once.
'You smoke it similar to a crack pipe or something like that - you burn the patch and suck the fumes through a straw.
'It gives you an instant, intense hit.
'He'd buy large supplies of both drugs - I think the most he ever spent was around $40,000 at one time.
'I'd say in general his habit was costing him about $2-300 a day but that didn't matter to him as he had plenty of money - he never ran out.'
Doctor D said apart from the one time he saw him smoke a Fentanyl patch, Prince's drug use was limited to popping pills, which enabled him to keep his drug use out of the public eye.
'He was always a pill man - that's why nobody ever saw him do drugs,' he said.
'He never smoked or shot up, or snorted cocaine.
'He was always functional too - I never saw him out of it or strung out because I always provided him with what he needed and he would buy in bulk so he was always prepared.
'At the time I was dealing other drugs too but he never asked for anything else.
'He wasn't really a party guy either, he was doing these drugs so he could feel at ease around people.
'DRUG STORE HEROIN': ELVIS WAS ALSO LINKED TO DILAUDID
Prescription drug addict Elvis Presley was another superstar linked to Dilaudid after his death.
The opiate, often nicknamed 'drug store heroin' and officially known as hydromorphone, was Elvis' favorite drug.
Dilaudid, said to be two to eight times more potent than morphine, was used by The King to boost his energy levels before a performance.
While the narcotic was not found among the many drugs discovered in Elvis' system after he died, he was quoted in the book 'Elvis: The Final Years' as telling the wife of Red West, a member of his inner circle, 'I've tried them all, honey, and believe me, Dilaudid is the best.'
Elvis Presley died on 16 August, 1977. At the time of his death, he was suffering from glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage and an enlarged colon.
All of these ailments were aggravated, if not caused, by drug abuse.
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