Pills found in Prince’s home were ’mislabeled’
Investigators reportedly found counterfeit drugs at Prince’s Paisley Park mansion in the wake of his death.
According to reports, anonymous officials investigating the artist’s deathhave said the pills seized did contain synthetic opioid fentanyl, but that they were mislabelled.
Prince was found dead in an elevator at his home in Minnesota on April 21. He was 57.
Autopsy results released on June 3 showed Prince died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. His medical records showed no prescription for any controlled substances.
Now, officials have said many of the pills were falsely labelled Watson 385, a stamp used for the mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, a weaker type of opioid.
According to the Associated Press, the counterfeit drugs seized from Prince’s dressing room contained fentanyl, lidocaine – which is often added to cocaine as a filler – and U-4770, an opioid that’s around 7.5x stronger than morphine.
It’s believed Prince was not a long-time user of fentanyl. Sources have said Prince had the drugs with him only a week before his death on April 15when his plane made an emergency stop in Illinois after he fell ill. During his treatment in Illinois, Prince apparently received two doses of Narcan, an antidote used to treat opioid overdoses.