Prince concealed powerful painkillers as vitamins

trending 18/04/2017

At the time of Prince's death, his apartment and recording compound was littered with narcotic painkillers, some concealed as vitamins and issued in a friend's name.

The singer died in the lift of his home on April 21, 2016. According to the coroner's report, Prince, 57, accidentally overdosed on the powerful opiod medicine fentanyl - a drug 30 times stronger than heroin.

Almost a year after his death, the search warrant and affidavits from investigators have been released. They appear to reveal methods Prince was using to support and conceal an addition to prescription painkillers.       

On the day of Prince's death, investigators found prescription medication kept in bottles of vitamins and over-the-counter painkillers strewn throughout his apartment. 

According to the same warrant, witnesses claimed Prince had recently suffered withdrawals, "believed to be the result of abuse of prescription medicine".

Hand-written notes on the warrant issued on the day of his death describe a CVS Pharmacy bottle of "vitamin D2" issued under the name Kirk Johnson - Prince's former drummer and long-time friend. The bottle contained seven "green capsules with 194 imprint" and "eight orange oval pills".

Investigators also found pills imprinted with "Watson 853" concealed in a Bayer bottle. The warrant does not describe the Bayer bottle, but the company's best-known product is over-the-counter aspirin. But the contents of the bottle are far from over-the-counter. Watson 853 is a narcotic analgesic containing acetaminophen and hydrocodone. The same pills were found in a second bottle of over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine Aleve.

A separate document filed on June 8 concludes the initial search found "a sizable amount of narcotic medications located inside Paisley Park."

"The narcotic medications recovered inside Paisley Park were not located in just one area, but rather, were located in various pill containers throughout the residence. Many of those areas where the pills were located would be places Prince would frequent, such as his bedroom and wardrobe/laundry room."

The unsealed documents say a number of painkillers were prescribed for Prince's hip pain by Dr Michael Todd Schulenberg, including clonidine, hydroxyzine pamoate, ondanselron hydrochloride, acetarninophen/oxycodone  and diazepam. The documents say the Dr Schulenberg wrote some of the prescriptions in "Kirk Johnson's name for Prince's privacy". 

The question of who prescribed the fentanyl that killed Prince remains unanswered. No one has been charged in relation to Prince's death, but the investigation is ongoing. 

Watch the video to see 10 things you probably didn't know about Prince