Cocaine killed Billy Mays...Billy found jacked up days before death
 

Autopsy: Cocaine contributed to Billy Mays' death

TAMPA, Fla. ? An autopsy report shows that cocaine use contributed to the heart disease that suddenly killed TV pitchman Billy Mays in June, officials announced Friday.

The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office previously determined that the bearded, boisterous TV spokesman had a heart attack in his sleep. His wife found him unresponsive in bed in their Tampa condo June 28.

Mays was a pop-culture fixture with his energetic commercials pitching gadgets and cleaning products like Orange Glo and OxiClean.

While heart disease was the primary cause of death, a report released Friday by the medical examiner listed cocaine as a "contributory cause of death."

The medical examiner "concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death," the office said in a press release.

The office said Mays last used cocaine in the few days before his death but was not under the influence of the drug when he died. Hillsborough County spokeswoman Lori Hudson said nothing in the toxicology report indicated the frequency of Mays' cocaine use.

Cocaine can raise the arterial blood pressure, directly cause thickening of the left wall of the ventricle and accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the release said.

The toxicology tests also showed therapeutic amounts of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. Mays had suffered hip problems and was scheduled for hip-replacement surgery the day after he was found dead.

The McKees Rocks, Pa., native developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other "As Seen on TV" gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.

He got his start on TV on the Home Shopping Network and then branched out into commercials and infomercials. He developed such a strong following that he became the subject of a reality TV series, Discovery Channel's "Pitchmen."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090807/.../us_billy_mays

Another thread already son.

is this it? fucking-around-and-business-discussion/920499-cocaine-killed-billy-mays-billy-found-jacked-days-death.html

Billy deserves at least two threads.

if you read this its bullshit. so the guy did cocaine, that has little to do with his already existing "heart disease" - they word this stuff so it makes it sound like cocaine killed him but it didnt.

if he didnt die for overdose, cocaine didnt kill him, an EXISTING HEART CONDITION did.

as they back off and clearly state:

"While heart disease was the primary cause of death"

sensationalism at its finiest. its like a person smokes cigarettes for 30 years, then smokes a joint and he dies. he already had lung cancer, the joint didnt kill him. same thing here.

what I don't get is..
Why tell a doc you have issues with anxiety.. get anxiety pills..
and then do an upper like cocaine too?

People medicate WAY WAY WAY too much.

"Cocaine can raise the arterial blood pressure, directly cause thickening of the left wall of the ventricle and accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the release said"

I agree with you Fletch but I'm not taking it that serious. The web is an up to the minute, instant dump for the masses. The article doesn't reveal the possibility Billy was a long time cocaine user.

I hear ya!

From other thread:

Official documents show the following drugs were in Mays' system -- hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (painkiller), alprazolam (Xanax), nordiazepam (Valium), benzoylecgonine (byproduct of cocaine) and temazepam (anti-anxiety). Ethanol -- alcohol -- was also in Mays' system.


LOL, Pfizer would come at them so fast if they blamed the hydrocodone in his system, its easy to see why they blame cocaine and not the other massive amounts of drugs in his system LOL

as i said, sensationalism ;)
:thumbsup

oxycodone is a bad drug too...

you're confusing the thread title with the article. all the article says is cocaine contributed to his death. it doesn't say cocaine killed him... anywhere. it doesn't even suggest that. it says it contributed to his heart disease which DID kill him.

jackass.

:2 cents:

They are all bad drugs and easy to get hooked on. No matter what, his death was sad. Releasing this information makes him look like a serious drug user. None of us know when, why, or how long he was on these drugs. People like to assume the worst on here.

I hear ya!

but fact is oxycontin kills more people than cocaine ;)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q... q=f&oq=&aqi=

"cocaine" just looks better in the headline and wont get you sued ;)

and it dont even take a drug addict to know that mixing these specifically, can and does kill people.

"hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (painkiller), alprazolam (Xanax), nordiazepam (Valium)"

those 4 alone will kill you quicker than a line of cocaine LOL that shit will kill a horse!

k im about to go watch movie, but I always like to back up what i say ;?)

you start mixing tranquilizers and you will greet Death he was mixing benzos, opiods and alcohol, bad move... ;)

"Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14florida.html

Druggy!..

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...al/OxyRush.jpg

Drugs are bad... :stoned

ADG