More Information on the Anna Nicole Drug Overdose

Monday it was announced that Anna Nicole Smith had died of "an accidental overdose with no other criminal element present," Seminole Police Department Chief Charlie Tiger stated in a press conference on Monday.

An investigation has been completed and foul play has been ruled out. No evidence has been found to contradict the overdose announcement. Hundreds of hours of video tape from the hotel in which Anna was staying has been reviewed, the hard drives of Howard K. Stern's laptop has been analyzed and "we found nothing to indicate any foul play," the police chief said.

Dr Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner reviewed the evidence from the autopsy and said that Smith's system contained methadone, anti-anxiety and weight reducing drugs, vitamins and other substances.

Perper's findings stated that Smith had ingested many medications, including methadone and Valium. These drugs were taken in minimal amounts Perper said. Smith had a bacterial infection due to injecting medication in her buttocks. Combined with the flu, this caused her death Perper stated in his reports.

The sleeping medication chloral hydrate also contributed to Anna Nicole's death. Chloral hydrate is a sedative used to treat insomnia and alcohol problems, minimize anxiety and relieve surgery related pain.

The drug is very rarely prescribed and is known to be possibly fatal if combined with certain other drugs which include the sedative Lorazepam. The autopsy showed she was taking this drug, said Dr. Chip Walls, a forensic toxicologist for the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.

"It's very toxic if you mix it with any other central nervous system depressant drugs," Walls said. "You could get profound sedation leading up to coma and respiratory arrest."

Anna Nicole Smith died 6 weeks ago on Feb 8^th. With the amount of TV press she has received nothing else comes close. It's been stated that evidence found recently had caused the delay of her autopsy reports. With more information coming out of the woodwork almost daily, we may be hearing about this case for quite some time.

Tiger said his department found "no evidence of illegal drugs" at the hotel and they had reviewed "hundreds of hours of tapes and found nothing unusual."

Perper said that Smith's death could have been due "solely to natural causes ... some medical and chemicals ... or a combination of natural causes and medication."

The autopsy of Anna Nicole Smith was not released until more then three weeks after she was buried in the Bahamas.

Sources:
People (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1536410_20016030,00.html)