The Huffington Post is reporting that ex-Wilco member Jay Bennett died of an apparent accidental overdose of pain medication:
Toxicology tests showed the 45-year-old musician died from an overdose of fentanyl, Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said in a brief news release. The drug is found in patches commonly prescribed to treat chronic pain.
The manufacturers recalled fentanyl patches in February 2008 after discovering that some leaked, causing labored breathing and possible overdose. It wasn’t known whether Jay Bennett was using similar patches.
Update: More from the AP via Billboard and the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, which adds: “Mr. Bennett had one of those patches on his back when found, Northrup said.”
I think most of us assumed it was gonna be an OD…let’s just hope it was in fact accidental. Poor Jay
it would be hard to believe that it wasn’t accidental. i just don’t see him in that light.
“let’s just hope it was in fact accidental”?
OF COURSE IT WAS. If he was going to intentionally OD, there are a hundred of better ways than sticking on too many leaky pain patches.
complete shame that a product error may have stolen such a musical gift. And by the way, of course its accidental.
“apparent accidental OD”
scary and sad
Jim DeRogatis implies that Bennett might’ve been shooting, smoking, or snorting illicitly obtained fentanyl, but a commenter named “R” claims that Bennett “was wearing a prescribed patch…a product that had been recalled several times over the past few years, for manufacturers’ defects, and as recently as December 31, 2008. That last recall was for patches that had expiration dates of December 2009.”
Rock Proper links to the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette article wherein the coroner says, “Mr. Bennett had one of those patches on his back when found.”
The whole thing is still just a terrible shame. But uninformed speculation certainly doesn’t make it any better.
I don’t think DeRo is implying anything. He just throwing shit out there so people can understand what fentanyl is. I think the fact that he chose to source something from the DEA is more coincidental and probably has to do with it being the 4th hit that Google comes up with. It’s also an “official” source that is quotable in newspapers, something that Wikipedia is not.
Sure, but to not include the detail from the coroner that Bennett was found with a patch on his back still seems shady to me…
I mean, personally, I read it and my immediate thought was, “Aw shit, dude was shooting shit hundreds of times more potent than heroin!”
Then I read the comments and found the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette article that has the full quote from the coroner.
Had it not been for the comments, I would’ve totally assumed he was using illicit sources of fentanyl. In fact, even before DeRo’s blog post, I had been assuming the worst. DeRo’s thing “confirmed” it, but the coroner’s report proves that he was using the patch.
DeRo offers a mea culpa.
Just like I said.