Another Celebrity Taken by Drugs
TV Pitchman Billy Mays was made famous for selling such products on television as OxiClean and OrangeGlo. Sadly, Billy died several weeks ago at his home in Tampa from a heart attack. A recent report now issued by Hillsborough County, Florida, indicates that cocaine was a contributor to his death at age 50.
According to the county and based on a statement from Dr. Leszek Chrostowski, the associate medical examiner that did the autopsy, “Mays died from a lethal arrhythmia of the heart caused by hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease. He further concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and therefore contributed to his death.”
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) says that regardless of the route or frequency of use, cocaine abusers can experience acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular (vessels in the brain) emergencies, such as a heart attack or stroke, which may cause sudden death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest.
Mays was just one of many celebrities that has been taken as a result of drug addiction over the last few years and is now added to a list of many thousands of cocaine abusers in the state of Florida, a primary area for abuse of the drug.
According to the most recent statistics more than 5,000 kilograms of the drug were seized in the state during a one year period. Additionally, more than one thousand people die in Florida each year as a result of having cocaine in their body.
If you or someone you love needs help with cocaine abuse, call us at 877-873-8532.
Article written by Erica Catton