More Evidence That Prince Could Have Been Killed by Opiates

How could a seemingly fit, tee-totalling, clean-living, uber-religious vegan suddenly die at the age of 57? It’s all conjecture and speculation until the toxicology report comes back, of course, but it’s looking more and more like opiates were a major factor in the cause of Prince’s death. Here’s the latest evidence.

The Doctor’s Appointment

According to Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California physician, he was scheduled to meet with Prince about his addiction to painkillers. The date for the appointment was April 22, the day after Prince died. This is a quote from the Minneapolis Star:

Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a national authority on opioid addiction treatment, was called by Prince representatives the night of April 20 because Prince “was dealing with a grave medical emergency,” said William Mauzy, a prominent Minneapolis attorney working with the Kornfeld family.

Kornfeld, who runs Recovery Without Walls in Mill Valley, Calif., could not clear his schedule to meet with Prince the next day, April 21, but he planned to fly out the following day.

So he sent his son, Andrew Kornfeld, who works with him, to Minnesota, with plans for him to go to Paisley Park to explain how the confidential treatment would work, Mauzy said.

“The plan was to quickly evaluate his health and devise a treatment plan,” Mauzy said, speaking on behalf of the Kornfelds. “… The doctor was planning on a lifesaving mission.”

More details can be found here.

The 911 Calls

This is a bit of a sidebar, but the information is still interesting. Authorities in Minnesota have released a list of all the Prince-related 911 calls over the last few years. While most of the 40 or so calls could be categorized as mundane or routine, there were a couple that were…odd.

• June 11, 2011: A German woman called to say that she was worried about Prince and an alleged uncontrollable coke habit. No action was taken because the information was vague at best.
• January 26, 2015: A woman asked the 911 dispatcher to relay a message to Prince: Their mutual son was having open-heart surgery.
• April 21, 2016: This woman apparently called again, saying that their son–now 17–was going to attend the funeral.

In other news, Prince set a record by placing five albums in the Top 10 of the US Billboard album chart. (Positions 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7). He has nineteen albums on the full Top 200.