Pharmacist refused to fill drug order for Anna Nicole Smith; called it 'pharmaceutical suicide'

The request for drugs for Anna Nicole Smith slid off the fax of a Valley Village pharmacy five days after the model’s son had died in the Bahamas. A psychiatrist wanted a medicine cabinet of pills – two  sedatives, 300 tablets of methadone, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory drug and four bottles of a painkiller nicknamed “hospital heroin.”

The amount and combination alarmed the pharmacist, who later recalled thinking, “They are going to kill her with this.” He phoned Smith’s internist and said he had no intention of filling a prescription that amounted to “pharmaceutical suicide.”

Less than five months later, on Feb. 8, 2007, the 39-year-old overdosed on prescription medication in a Florida hotel room.

The account of the pharmacist’s warning is contained in recently unsealed affidavits written by state officials investigating the role her physicians and a companion played in her drug use.

The affidavits document similar admonitions from two other pharmacists and allege that Smith’s psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, and internist, Sandeep Kapoor, ignored obvious dangers in providing a smorgasbord of powerful and addictive drugs to a woman with a history of substance abuse.

The documents also cite evidence that both doctors separately transgressed professional boundaries by having sexual contact with their famous patient.

Los Angeles prosecutors charged the doctors and Smith’s boyfriend and lawyer, Howard K. Stern, in March with conspiring to illegally provide her with controlled substances. All three have pleaded not guilty.

A preliminary hearing is set for next month. In court papers filed last week, prosecutors indicated they plan to call as witnesses those close to the former Playboy Playmate, including her bodyguard and Larry Birkhead, the father of her daughter Dannielynn.

-- Harriet Ryan in Los Angeles

Photo: Francine Orr / L.A. Times

The former Playboy model opened up her personal life to the world with "The Anna Nicole Show," which aired on E! from 2002-2004.

Comments

[Josephine Park]

suIcide

[C Mason]

Do you guys spell check before you post? Your a newspaper right?

'pharmaceutical sucide'

[Tom in Clareville]

Three cheers for the three unnamed pharmacists who recognized the abusive and potentially fatal drug combination prescribed by Anna Nicole Smith's physicians. I hope at some point they can be named and applauded for their actions. Too often, pharmacists are denegrated as overpaid pill counting clerks. They know, better than most physicians, how various pharmaceutical combinations can be detrimental to the patient. Ana Nicole, Michael Jackson and many, many ordinary Joes would be alive today if all of the drugs these people had been prescribed had been known by and controlled by a single pharmacist.

[Alex Datig]

As a former stand-in for Anna Nicole, I cannot imagine how any doctor could not see Anna had a problem with addiction. Now also a woman in recovery and speaker in recovery, I can see the side of Anna's own self-deception, where she thought she could fix her feelings and state of mind with intoxicating substances.

As with Michael Jackson, there are two elements to the case. One: The addict who thought she could not live without her drug(s) because the pain of not having it (or them) was too much for her. Two: Doctors who saw an out-of-control addict who they could make money off of.

I am saddened for Anna's demise. She did not have to leave us this way. There are solutions for addicts if we choose to take them. -- The doctors should be locked up and have their medical license suspended for life!

[Reader]

Where is your newspaper editor? Edit before you publish please.

[Carol]

Are the two doctors still licensed? Will they be charged with anything?

And after reading about how many doctors and pharmacists had to have aided and abetted Michael Jackson in his addiction, it is good to read about these pharmacists' professionalism.

[Lisa N]

Michael Douglas's son is arrested (for at least the third time) and charged with trafficking in drugs. While awaiting trial, he doesn't go to jail, but gets to stay in his parent's luxury apartment in New York, where he gets caught having heroin smuggled in. Phil Spector threatens women with guns for 30 years, finally kills one, and seven years pass before he sees the inside of a jail cell. Mitrice, who is not a wealthy celebrity, owes the grand sum of $89 and has a little bit of pot in her car. She gets arrested, is declared to be too drunk to drive, is taken to a sherriff station in an unfamiliar neighborhood, then is tossed out on the street at 1:30 AM. Anybody who thinks we have equal justice in America is delusional. Yes, she should have to pay her restaurant bill, and whatever misdeameanor fine a small amount of pot is assessed. But the police are supposed to preserve and protect, not callously endanger a young woman. How about a little common courtesy and some compassi

[Next time print facts]

HA! If you want a great comment on this garbage of a story read 1645 on this page

http://www.tmz.com/2009/07/20/larry-b-and-dannielynn-swingers/110#comments

garbage written from above
"pharmacist, who later recalled thinking"
He didn't think of it when he saw the order? Sure, thats real believable.
"cite evidence that both doctors separately transgressed professional boundaries by having sexual contact with their famous patient." Garbage! Dr. E's husband probably agrees that is garbage being Anna was pregnant then in mourning over the loss of her only son.

Hey Harriet, there is some swamp land for sale in Arizona, why don't you print that rumor while your at it!

[Bill]

Another resident in The Valley of the Dolls, same as Michael Jackson. The picture says it all.

[noodlemonkey6]

These tards deserve whatever they get. The whole lot of them are greedy sycophants who never said anything but yes to Anna.