This may not be a popular line of thinking among Jackson fans, but a legal defense that pins the brunt of the blame on Jackson himself may be what it takes to release his doctors of liability.

Jackson, for all his Peter Pan ways, was a grown man. And by account after account, he was begging to be given things, to be prescribed drugs that aren’t good for grown elephants. According to his former nutrionist, he asked for Diprivan. According to some reports, he died from Diprivan.

The coldest devil’s advocate position says Jackson was a wrong-way driver on a one-way street—destined for disaster—and that not any one member of his entourage, not any one doctor on his tab, not any one drug, is to blame for his demise.

There, we said it. Said what a lawyer might one day say in court. (Mind you, no one—not Murray, not anyone—has been charged with wrongdoing in Jackson’s death.)

Do we feel better? No.

No one’s been charged yet, though we’re guessing it’s only a matter of time once the investigation’s finished and the autopsy results become unsealed. Maybe it’s time for the lawyers to start digging up MJ’s past and learn more about his vices?

Read on from CNN:

In  comments published in the Los Angeles Times and confirmed Thursday by his spokeswoman, attorney Ed Chernoff said his client did not know which drugs Jackson might have been taking or whether he was addicted.

“When he accepted the job, he was not aware of any specific requirements regarding medications that Michael Jackson was taking or any addictions that he was suffering from,” Chernoff told the Times.

In a quote confirmed by his spokesman, Chernoff said that it was only after Murray moved to Los Angeles in May that “he realized that Michael Jackson had some very unusual problems.”

Murray did not conduct drug tests on Jackson and had no way of knowing, other than from Jackson himself, whether he was taking other drugs, Chernoff’s spokeswoman, Miranda Sevcik, told CNN.

In a raid on a Las Vegas pharmacy earlier this week, investigators found documentation that proves that Murray, Jackson’s personal physician, purchased the anesthetic Propofol there, which he later administered to the King of Pop. They’re building a paper trail that might bury Murray on those manslaughter charges that police are reportedly issuing to him.

From the article:

According to the search warrant (now posted on TMZ) for the Las Vegas pharmacy raided on Tuesday, authorities were looking for credit card receipts and other documents related to drugs purchased by Murray on May 12, specifically mentioning a type of propofol that was found in Jackson’s home.

A law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press that officials removed evidence on Tuesday that proved Murray bought the propofol from Las Vegas’ Applied Pharmacy Services and that he administered the drugs from that purchase to Jackson in the hours before his death.

We’ve pulled up a  couple parts of the interview that were the most interesting. Here, from CNN, Jermaine discusses the allegations of Jackson’s drug addiction:

Jermaine Jackson told King he had no reason to believe his brother was addicted to drugs, a suspicion that detectives revealed when they requested a warrant to search Dr. Conrad Murray’s Las Vegas, Nevada, home and office.

“I have never seen him act abnormal around me or never known anything like that,” he said. He said he never talked about drugs with his brother “because it never came to my mind.”

While the coroner’s report on what killed Jackson has been delayed indefinitely, evidence emerged that he shopped for a doctor who would give him the drug investigators suspect led to his death.

In addition to denying the drug abuse rumors, Jermaine also dismissed the suggestions that Jackson’s three children were not his biological heirs. He doesn’t, however, know what to make of the rumors of Michael’s  “fourth child,” Norwegian music star Omer Bhatti.

When King asked if there was a chance the children might have show business careers, he said “there’s a great possibility.”

“They love film and they love movies and they know a lot about animation,” he said.

The arrangement for Debbie Rowe, the mother of the two eldest children, to have limited visitation with them is “perfect” and “wonderful,” he said. “We’ve talked about horses, she has a ranch.”

He disputed suggestions that Michael Jackson was not the biological father of the children.

“People come forth and say things just to get attention, but those are definitely Michael’s children.

“You can look at the kids and tell that they are Michael’s kids,” he said.

Jermaine said he did not know if Omer Bhatti, a 25-year-old Norwegian performer, was his brother’s son.

According to the unnamed business associate, Jackson’s behavior on a trip in Dubai was so bizarre that those around him questioned him about his drug usage, and Jackson admitted to using a substance with a description matching Propofol.

Michael Jackson’s propofol abuse could have started as early as 2005, according to sources with longstanding relationships with the singer.

“He went to Dubai in 2005 and when he was there, people around him started to grow concerned. He was acting bizarre, and everyone knew he was using,” said one business associate. “Finally he was confronted and all he’d say was ‘It’s stronger than Demerol, it’s something you can only get at the hospital.’ Now, looking back, it sounds like it could have been propofol.”

“He described it to me as ‘something to sleep that completely puts you out, that you get in hospitals,’ ” said another source who was in talks to start a new tour with Jackson during the Dubai trip, which followed the singer’s acquittal on child molestation charges.

“His behavior was strange enough that it was good reason to not continue talks of a tour, at least until he got help,” the source said. “He was an addict. He admitted so himself on television. But now that we know about the propofol, there’s a lot of us thinking that was why he was so weird in Dubai — maybe it was propofol.”

(From MSNBC)

Applied Pharmacy Services was searched this morning, as investigators looked for documents that might give them some insight about how the King of Pop acquired different drugs. A previous warrant executed on Dr. Conrad Murray’s home and office described Michael Jackson as a drug addict.

This is from the LA Times:

Drug Enforcement Administration agents are assisting the LAPD in executing a search warrant at a Las Vegas pharmacy tied to the Michael Jackson death investigation.

Authorities arrived at Applied Pharmacy Services on Flamingo Road this morning to look for documents, including computer files, said Michael Flanagan, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s Las Vegas office. The search should take about an hour.

The warrant and the accompanying affidavit, which are similar to the ones executed last month at the home and office of Jackson doctor Conrad Murray, are sealed, Flanagan said. He declined to comment further on their contents.

We’re slowly putting together all the news about Jackson and his connections to drug use. Earlier reports indicated that Jackson used up to 19 aliases to get access to new prescriptions, and his demand for drugs grew noticeably in the last months of his life. A handful of doctors and health specialists who spoke with Jackson this spring indicated that the singer was struggling with the demanding rehearsals for his planned O2 concert series. He even offered huge sums of money in exchange for drugs like propofol and demerol. What a mess!

Jackson, who was due to play at London’s O2 Arena, allegedly begged British medic, Dr Susan Etok, to get hold of a list of drugs, including powerful painkillers Diprivan (Propofol) and Demerol, in the U.K. because he “couldn’t trust” doctors in America.She tells Britain’s Sunday Mirror newspaper, “He kept saying, ‘Are you going to do it for me, you are going to do it for me, aren’t you?’ He was desperate, like a child begging his mum for sweets. Then he said, ‘I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care how much money it takes – if it costs half a million, that’s fine.’

“Then he said there were medications he took in the States that he needed. He said the names but they didn’t mean much to me. The one name I recognised was Diprivan. I knew it was something to do with anaesthetics and thought that seemed strange. But Michael kept saying, ‘They’re just routine’.”

Erok emailed Jackson to tell him that she couldn’t help him – he replied five days later saying he would find an alternative way of getting hold of the medication.
She adds, “He told me not to worry – he would get someone else to help out.”

(More here.)

The Guardian reports that the insurance policy for Jackson’s planned 50-show concert covered a lot of things, like cancellation due to death, but it did not cover illicit drug use. So, if the tox reports show that Jackson had illegal drugs in his system, the Jackson estate won’t be able to cash in on the huge policy. Apparently, the insurers knew about Jackson’s history with prescription drug use. This could be a huge blow for the Jackson estate, which is still wading through the huge sums of debt that Michael Jackson accumulated while he was alive.

The insurance policy for Michael Jackson’s cancelled O2 residency will not apply if the late star is found to have taken illegal drugs, the Associated Press has confirmed. Though the policy covers cancellation resulting from death, the insurers are exempted if Jackson was involved in the possession or “illicit taking of drugs”.

The policy’s payout of millions of pounds may therefore hinge on Jackson’s autopsy results, which have twice been delayed. There are numerous reports linking Jackson’s alleged use of propofol, a powerful anaesthetic, with his death on 25 June.

According to the Associated Press, Jackson and AEG Live took out the insurance policy in April. The document only covers the first 13 gigs in the epic 50-show run – bolstering reports that promoters had been unable to insure the full residency. A March estimate showed the 50 concerts required more than £300m in insurance cover.

(Guardian)

AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, File

The sedatives, commonly given to patients before surgery, could be lethal if administered improperly or combined in risky doses with other drugs. Dr. Murray, who is not an anesthesiologist, insists that his treatment of the Thriller singer was within normal medical practices.

The late Jackson’s tox screen has yet to be released, so investigators can’t pin down Dr. Murray, though they reportedly believe that Jackson’s untimely death is linked to the propofol that the doctor gave Jackson.

More here:

Hours before Michael Jackson’s death, his doctor administered multiple sedatives along with a powerful anesthetic the pop star used to sleep, according to a law enforcement official. It’s a safe combination if done properly; potentially lethal if not.The official said the type of sedatives Dr. Conrad Murray gave Jackson were benzodiazepines, often used to calm patients before surgery. Murray told investigators the doses were within normal medical guidelines, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Even at acceptable levels, benzodiazepines can intensify how the anesthetic propofol depresses breathing, so strict monitoring and careful dosing is required. The balance can be tricky, a slip-up disastrous.

Murray, who administered the drugs to Jackson in a room at the pop star’s rented mansion, told investigators Jackson stopped breathing the morning of June 25 and he was unable to revive him. The doctor is the central figure in what police term a manslaughter investigation, but authorities have not classified him a suspect.

To top it off, Murray’s not the only doctor tied to the Jackson investigation. The warrant also indicates that police want to communicate with seven different medical professionals about Jackson’s health. Was Jackson abusing the system by getting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors? The police continue to dig for more information.

Authorities investigating Michael Jackson’s death alluded to the singer as an “addict” and were seeking evidence related to the powerful anesthetic propofol, according to search warrants released Thursday.The documents show investigators have cause to believe several California Business and Professions codes had been broken, including “excessive prescribing,” a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to 180 days.

Los Angeles police and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents spent much of Tuesday at the Las Vegas home and business of Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, who is the focus of a manslaughter investigation. The raids sought evidence supporting that charge, as well as code violations, including “prescribing to an addict” and “unprofessional conduct.”

From the AP.