Kurt Cobain blew $400 daily on heroin Trends Feb 23, 2017

April 8, 1994, was a sad day for alternative rock fans, for this was the day 27-year-old Nirvana singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain’s body, along with a 20-gauge shotgun with which he ended his life, was found in the greenhouse of his Seattle home. Kurt had been missing for six days. Medical examination found a high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium in his bloodstream and Cobain was said to be identifiable only by his fingerprints.

Nearly 23 years after Cobain’s death, forensic pathologist Michael Hunter appeared last week on the Reelz series “Autopsy: The Last Hours of Kurt Cobain,” to discuss the medical evidence around Cobain’s suicide. Hunter revealed that Cobain was using about $400 (about $700 in today’s prices) worth of heroin daily, which is an enormous amount of the drug to be consumed on a day-to-day basis. “Those that were close to him realized that if they didn’t do something, Kurt was going to die,” Hunter said. The Reelz series also featured a graphic representation of Cobain’s suicide.

In a 1992 letter penned by Cobain to his fans about his heroin addiction after a stint in a rehab, the music icon had mentioned about the uncomfortable stomach condition that plagued him for years and which the doctors had no answers for. According to the letter, Cobain finally decided to relieve his pain with small doses of heroin for about three weeks. While it did provide him temporary relief, the pain would eventually find its way back. And that is when Kurt decided to stop using drugs to seek the temporary relief, but unfortunately the habit stuck and he could never permanently wean himself off the drug.

Heroin is addictive

Heroin, a highly addictive substance, is an opioid drug that is synthesized from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from opium plant. Heroin abuse is widespread in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heroin overdose death rates increased by 20.6 percent from 2014 to 2015 and nearly 13,000 people lost their lives in 2015 alone. The data also reveals that the number of heroin-related overdose deaths has jumped four times since 2010.

Addiction to any drug tends to start slow and almost always springs from a desire to escape from stress, trauma or pain. Slowly the use progresses to abuse and then to dependency. The drug highs and lows keep intensifying until the addict loses all sense of self and control over the addiction. However, drug addiction can be cured with right treatment that includes a combination of behavioral therapy and medications.

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