LOS ANGELES – The powerful sedative Diprivan was found in Michael Jackson’s home, a law enforcement official said Friday as the city planned for a massive crowd at the singer’s memorial service.
Diprivan is an anesthetic widely used in operating rooms to induce unconsciousness. Also known as Propofol, it is given intravenously and is very unusual to have in a private home.
The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about the matter.
A Los Angeles Police spokesman, Lt. John Romero, declined to discuss the case.
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said.
The cause of Jackson’s death has not been determined. Autopsy results are not expected for several weeks.
At the downtown Staples Center, where Jackson’s memorial will be held Tuesday morning, Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger said anywhere from 250,000 to 700,000 people could try to reach the arena, even though only 17,500 tickets will be available.
City councilwoman Jan Perry urged people to stay home and watch the memorial on TV. There will not be a funeral procession through the city.
Tickets to Jackson’s memorial service will be free. They can be obtained by registering at Staplescenter.com.
The site received a jaw-dropping 500 million hits – nearly twice the population of the United States – in only an hour and a half.
AEG, the concert promoters who own the Staples Center venue, also barred residents of the US states of Florida, New York and Rhode Island from applying for tickets due to legal restrictions on raffles.
There will be 11,000 tickets for seats inside Staples Center and 6,500 for seats in the adjacent Nokia Theater, where fans can watch a simulcast.
On Saturday night, 8,750 names were to be randomly selected to receive two tickets each.
No details about the memorial service itself were released.
Jackson was known to have suffered from severe insomnia. In the weeks before his death, Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who was working with the singer, said Jackson pleaded for Diprivan amid the stress of preparing for a massive series of comeback concerts.
Lee said she repeatedly rejected his demands because the drug was unsafe.
Told Friday that Diprivan had been found at Jackson’s house, she said, “I did everything I could to warn him against it.”
Jackson had trouble sleeping as far back as 1989, said one of his former publicists, Rob Goldstone, who spent a month on the road with Jackson during the “Bad” tour.
“He had very bad nightmares, he found it very difficult to sleep,” Goldstone said.
Diprivan, which has a milky appearance, is sometimes nicknamed “milk of amnesia.”
Last fall, doctors from the Mayo Clinic warned at a conference that in rare cases, Diprivan can trigger an irreversible chain of events leading to heart dysfunction and death.
They said three patients receiving Diprivan to treat severe seizures had suffered cardiac arrest, and two died. The doctors said the clinic stopped using Diprivan to treat such patients because of the danger.
The drug’s manufacturer, AstraZeneca PLC, warns that patients using Diprivan should be continuously monitored, and in a tiny number of cases patients using it have suffered cardiac arrest, although it was not clear the drug was to blame.
Authorities are investigating allegations that the 50-year-old Jackson had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants.
Any criminal charges would depend on whether Jackson had been overly prescribed medications, given drugs inappropriate for his needs, or if doctors knowingly prescribed Jackson medications under an assumed name.
Edward Chernoff, an attorney for Jackson’s doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, said Friday through a spokeswoman that he had agreed with investigators not to comment until information is released through official channels. Murray was in Jackson’s rented mansion when the singer went into cardiac arrest in his bedroom on June 25.
Murray has spoken to police and authorities say he is not a suspect. In an earlier interview, Chernoff said Murray never gave or prescribed Jackson the painkiller Demerol or OxyContin, and denied reports suggesting that the doctor gave the pop star drugs that contributed to his death.
Chernoff would not discuss what drugs the doctor administered to Jackson, but said they would have been prescribed in response to a specific complaint.
For sale, in pieces
The owner of the nightclub where Michael Jackson first performed professionally with the Jackson 5 wants to sell the building to fans of the King of Pop brick by brick.
Andrew Young, a businessman in Gary, Indiana – the Jacksons’ hometown – said he bought the now shuttered “Mr. Lucky’s Lounge” one year ago, with the idea of revitalizing it.
That plan has changed since the international pop icon’s death last week.
“If we have enough interest, we will take it apart by hand, piece by piece, being very careful to preserve every single thing,” Young said on Friday.
Steeltown Records founder Gordon Keith, who first signed the Jackson 5, has confirmed that Mr. Lucky’s was the first club the Jackson 5 hit after winning a city-wide talent contest in Gary.
The gritty steel town is located 16 kilometers southeast of Chicago.
“This is how it all started,” Young said, “back then you had to have talent and claw your way up from the bottom.”
Young is now in the process of starting up a website where interested bidders can view some of the memorabilia.
Mr. Lucky’s closed a couple of years ago and is now a decrepit, red brick building with boarded up windows and steel poles holding up its overhang.
Inside is a hardwood stage that Young says is the same one the Jackson 5 first performed on.
Photos of the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson from the “Thriller” era surround the bar and records and record jackets are nailed to the walls.
It is just a stone’s throw from the Jackson family home at 2300 Jackson Street.
Since the 50-year-old Jackson was pronounced dead over a week ago, sales of his recordings have once again taken off and the value of Jackson memorabilia has skyrocketed.
Jackson’s father, a steelworker, formed the Jackson 5 in 1964. The family left Gary for good when Michael was 11 years old after signing a record contract with Motown Records.
Jackson had only returned to the town a couple of times, once when he received the key to the city and when he promised to establish a still unbuilt performing arts center.
Legal battlelines
As the funeral took shape, legal battlelines were drawn over the King of Pop’s legacy and the fate of his offspring, with ex-wife Debbie Rowe declaring she planned to seek custody of the star’s two eldest children.
A court hearing is scheduled next Monday to determine who will administer Jackson’s estate, and another hearing is set for July 13 to discuss the guardianship of the singer’s three children.
Rowe, who has remained largely silent since Jackson died from an apparent cardiac arrest on June 25, told NBC television in Los Angeles that she would seek custody of Prince Michael, 12, and Paris, 11.
Rowe, who was married to Jackson between 1996 and 1999, was omitted from a 2002 will filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday in which Jackson named his 79-year-old mother Katherine Jackson as guardian.
Jackson’s mother was on Monday appointed temporary guardian of the two children and their seven-year-old sibling, Prince Michael II or “Blanket,” who was born to an unidentified surrogate mother.
Rowe filed a petition in 2001 to give up her parental rights but later reversed her decision and secured visitation rights.
Rowe’s lawyer Eric George later told reporters in a conference call Thursday no final decision had been made.
Madonna to pay tribute
Madonna is paying tribute to Michael Jackson in the same arena where he was to stage his great comeback.
The superstar is preparing a special part of her concert Saturday at O2 arena. Madonna publicist Liz Rosenberg says she is going to unveil a special choreographed dance in honor of Jackson.
Michael Jackson was to perform his comeback concerts at O2 starting July 13. He had been rehearsing for those shows in his final days.
Giant statue
A giant plastic statue of Michael Jackson has been unveiled in a village near the Swiss city of Zurich, ahead of a ceremony to pay homage to the late Michael Jackson.
The 12-meter, four-ton gray statue of the self-proclaimed King of Pop, with contrasting gold-colored belts and straps, was installed on a lawn in the middle of Regensdorf.
“There are just 19 of them in the world and two in Europe,” Andreas Grassman, who is organizing the event, told AFP.
“We are organizing a big party tonight and during the weekend to celebrate” the singer, he said.
The Swiss entrepreneur, who described himself as a big fan of Jackson, explained that one of his friends had obtained the statue from Sony Music and used it on fairgrounds. – AP