Michael Jackson’s dermatologist said Wednesday that he was not surprised to learn that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in the singer’s home — adding that he had warned Jackson about their danger repeatedly.
“I’m very shocked by it, but I have to tell you it’s not something that would be unheard of,” Dr. Arnold Klein said in an appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Klein is the latest in a growing series of Jackson associates who have tied the singer to drugs in recent days. Two sources close to the Jackson family told CNN on Wednesday that sister Janet was so worried after visiting the emaciated singer in 2007 that she tried to stage an intervention with assistance from her other brothers. Jackson reportedly ordered his security guards not to let the family members in. He also refused to take calls from his mother, Katherine, CNN has learned. “If you tried to deal with him, he would shut you out,” one source told CNN. “You just wouldn’t hear from him for long periods.” At the time, the Jackson family released a statement to People magazine about the alleged intervention, denying it. But Janet Jackson was not among the signatories. Also Wednesday, a source told CNN that the Los Angeles County coroner’s office has drawn up a list of doctors who treated Jackson over the years and will talk to them to determine what kind of drugs they may have been prescribed the singer in the past. Among them: Klein and Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s cardiologist, who has already been interviewed by Los Angeles police. The exact cause of Jackson’s death on June 25 is pending a toxicology report. It is also the focus of an investigation by police, the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “I knew at one point that he was using Diprivan when he was on tour in Germany,” Klein said Wednesday night, without specifying when. “He was using it to go to sleep at night. I told him he was absolutely insane. I said, ‘You have to quit it. This drug, you can’t repeatedly take.'”
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Last week, sources close to Jackson told CNN that the insomniac singer traveled with an anesthesiologist who would “take him down” at night and “bring him back up” during the HIStory world tour in the mid-1990s. Klein, however, said he had not seen Diprivan or IV poles in the singer’s house. Diprivan is a powerful sedative that is administered intravenously and is known by the generic name Propofol. Asked whether Jackson had numerous track marks on his arms, as one source told CNN, Klein said he had not seen any. “Michael, at one time, had an addiction. He went to England and withdrew that addiction, where he went off drugs altogether,” the doctor said. Watch doctor reveal Jackson’s use of Diprivan ยป Klein refuted that he had ever given Jackson drugs beyond the doses needed for surgery. “If you took all the pills I gave him in the last year at once, it wouldn’t do anything to you.” Questions about fatherhood If he was clear-cut in his denial about giving drugs, Klein carefully couched a question about whether he was the biological father of Jackson’s children. “The most important thing is: The father is who the children want their father to be,” he said. When King repeatedly pressed Klein, the doctor said: “I still can’t answer it absolutely one way or another.” He said he donated sperm to a sperm bank, but not to Jackson. He said he is willing to take a DNA test. “I think, to the best of my knowledge, I’m not the father,” he said. “Can’t we leave this alone Can’t we leave these children alone” Memorial cost $1.4 million Meanwhile, the city of Los Angeles said Wednesday that Jackson’s memorial service cost $1.4 million. Spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said the costs included extra police on the streets, trash pickup, other sanitation and traffic control for the Tuesday event. Three thousand police officers, almost one-third of the force, were on hand to ensure that the Jackson events proceeded smoothly, Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Tuesday. The city, which is $530 million in debt, set up a Web page asking Jackson fans for donations to help with the expenses. On Tuesday morning, hundreds of donors contributed more than $17,000 through the site. But then, the high volume of traffic caused the site to crash frequently and for long periods, the mayor’s office said. So the city couldn’t collect contributions for several hours on Tuesday. The site also crashed for 12 hours, beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and again, periodically Wednesday morning, the office said. Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich does not want taxpayers to pay a penny for the service, his spokesman said Wednesday.
“The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying (the initial costs) for a private event,” spokesman John Franklin said. “That’s especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been furloughed or even lost jobs.” Michael Roth, spokesman for AEG, which owns Staples Center and put on the event, could not be reached for comment.
