Pubdate: Sat, 10 Feb 2007
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2007 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Angela Mosconi, Carrie Melago
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

SHOTS BEFORE DYING

Anna Seen Pounding Booze, And Her Room Was Full Of Pills

It's a scene similar to those that reportedly preceded her death. In 
these photos from 1995, the party girl balances a shot glass inside 
her T-shirt ... ... then dramatically empties it ... ... without 
using her hands. Yesterday Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, had a 
tearful interview on 'Good Morning America,' in which she blamed 
drugs for her daughter's death. Anna Nicole Smith's final days were a 
booze-fueled frenzy that ended in a hotel room so stocked with meds 
that it resembled a "pharmacist's shop," according to reports.

While an autopsy performed yesterday could not immediately determine 
what killed Smith, witnesses who saw the troubled bombshell in the 
days before her death say she was partying and falling-down drunk.

A bouncer at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, where Smith 
later died, said the centerfold was drinking into the early morning on Tuesday.

"I saw two guys walking her out. She was pretty much all trashed. She 
was messed up. She couldn't walk on her own. ... Her bouncer was on 
one side and her lawyer friend on the other," the bouncer said.

Just hours before she died, Smith was back at the Hard Rock's 24-hour 
Center Bar in the middle of the casino floor.

A bartender named Mike told the Daily News that Smith was tossing 
back double shots.

"Her eyes were droopy. It looked like she was really, really drunk. 
She was slurring her speech. She looked plastered," he said.

Mike said fans surrounded Smith that night, snapping pictures of her 
as she laughed and downed drinks.

"She talked to a few people but she was mostly concentrating on the 
drinking," he said. "She was wasted out of her mind, but that's the 
Anna Nicole me and my friends have grown to know."

Smith's hard-partying ways appeared to extend into her posh suite on 
the sixth floor of the hotel.

A source told Star magazine that entering the room was like "walking 
into a pharmacist's shop." Outfitted with a canopy bed, tall plants 
and leopard-print hangers, the room was filled with prescription 
medication including Xanax, Provigil, Vicodin and "a ... lot of 
methadone," Star reported.

During a press conference yesterday, Seminole Police Chief Charlie 
Tiger confirmed that the hotel room contained "no illegal drugs, only 
prescription medicine" but would not reveal the types of drugs or to 
whom they were prescribed.

Tiger also said the surveillance tapes at the hotel had not detected 
any unusual activity and that there was no evidence that a crime had occurred.

According to Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, 
the autopsy was able to exclude as the cause of death any physical 
injury, blunt-force trauma or asphyxia - meaning she didn't choke to 
death on her own vomit, though Smith did have a bruise on her back from a fall.

"This is clearly a sudden, unexpected and unexplained death," he 
said, describing his work as having to solve a "medical puzzle."

The former Playmate had suffered from a stomach flu in the days 
before she died, Perper said, and did have "subtle" abnormalities in 
her heart and intestines that will need to be examined microscopically.

While she had no "intact" pills in her stomach, toxicology tests will 
need to be completed, lasting three to five weeks, Perper said.

"We do not exclude any kind of contribution of medication to the 
death, and this will have to await the results of the toxicology," he said.

Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, said on "Good Morning America" that 
she believes her daughter's death was the result of drug use.

"And I tried to warn her about drugs and the people that she hung 
around with," Arthur said. "She wouldn't listen."

With Tamer El-Ghobashy in Montgomery, Tex.

[Sidebar]

Anna Nicole's Personal Pharmacy

Among the prescription drugs reportedly found in Anna Nicole Smith's 
death room:

Methadone: A powerful opiate painkiller, it is in the same drug 
category as morphine and codeine -- often used to help heroin addicts 
beat their habit. Causes severe drowsiness and can potentially 
interact with hundreds of other drugs.

Provigil: A secret favorite of pilots and hospital doctors working 
graveyard shifts, this central nervous system stimulant keeps users 
alert and awake. Side effects include anxiety, nervousness, 
depression, irregular heartbeat and dozens more.

Xanax: Prescribed for depression, anxiety disorders and panic attacks 
- -- and, occasionally, fear of open spaces -- this brain-bending 
benzodiazepine drug is notoriously habit-forming.

Fentanyl lollipop: A powerful narcotic painkiller often given to 
cancer patients, especially children. A berry-flavored one sold under 
the name Actiq sells for about $25 a "pop" on the street.

Julian Kesner
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman