Cocaine Contributed to Billy Mays' Death: Autopsy

Medical records will be subpoenaed

(NEWSER) - The investigation into Whitney Houston's death is now turning to her doctors and pharmacies. Investigators are expected in the next few days to serve subpoenas on the singer's physicians and the pharmacies where Houston obtained multiple prescription drugs, reports the Los Angeles Times . Officials aim to determine whether the drugs were dispensed properly, and if the singer was receiving too many prescriptions, a source tells the newspaper. Investigators will likely pore over a state-created database of controlled substances prescribed in California. Tracking celebrity prescription drug use can be complicated because they may regularly use drugs prescribed to aides, according to law enforcement authorities. More»

Blame prescription drugs for drug-related deaths doubling over decade

(NEWSER) - For the first time since the government started tracking drug-related deaths in 1979, narcotics have topped traffic fatalities—37,485 for drugs vs. 36,284 for accidents in 2009 (the most recent year available), reports the LA Times . But the big culprit isn't street drugs: it's prescription pills like Xanax, OxyContin, and especially Vicodin, which kill more people than cocaine and heroin combined. "The problem is right here under our noses in our medicine cabinets," says a Santa Barbara sheriff. More»

Friends say addiction not plausible

(NEWSER) - Speculation is swirling around the death of surfing great Andy Irons after police found a variety of prescription drugs in his Dallas hotel room. Police reports indicate that Irons had generic versions of Ambien and Xanax, and the county medical examiner told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that one of the bottles actually contained methadone. But friends and family say the phenom didn’t have a drug problem. More»

Lethal combination killed Andrew Koppel, NY coroner says

(AP) - The son of former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel, who was found dead after a day of bar-hopping with a man he'd just met, died from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol, the medical examiner's office said today. Andrew Koppel's May 31 death was ruled an accident. Koppel. 40, died from acute intoxication due to the combined effects of alcohol; heroin; cocaine; diazepam, the generic form of Valium; and Levamisole, a drug used to cut other drugs, said a rep for the New York medical examiner's office. More»

It's the most-prescribed psychiatric medication

(NEWSER) - Xanax is king in America—the anti-anxiety drug was prescribed more than any psychiatric medication in 2009, according to PsychCentral . We're a "zonked out" nation, observes Hamilton Nolan at Gawker , noting that the "first speed prescription" (amphetamine salts) doesn't show up until No. 11. Here's the top 10:

1. Xanax
2. Lexapro
3. Ativan
4. Zoloft
5. Prozac