Heath's poison pills

I know a few MDs who treat patients and they are always wary of med seekers, but I doubt Ledger was seeing your typical family physician, he probably had private doctors, probably more than one. If these docs are casually tossing off scripts for scheduled substances and stringing out their clients then they are not MDs anymore, they are drug pushers. There is a fine line to be sure, but sometimes the line is really freaking obvious. However, courts and juries are there to make those calls on a case by case basis. This will be an interesting case if it gets that far.

Undoubtedly there is pressure from pharmaceutical companies for physicians to distribute patented medicines, but there are plenty of abusable but useful medicines that are generic, so I don't see how pharm companies factor into the debate. Yes, your doctor has a duty to avoid unscrupulously handing out pills to drug seekers, but this isn't a trivial task. Your doctor has 100s of patients: in 10 minutes or so, he needs to remember who you are, figure out whats going on, decide on a treatment, etc. Quickie scripts for everyone are the norm, not the exception. A doc doesn't have time to deeply investigate whether you're a drug seeker or not. People who want drugs are always going to be able to get them. Making doctors shoulder more burden isn't going to help the issue at all.
In this day and age of prescribing a pill for every ill, people need to be aware of interactions and dangers of medicines they're taking and not rely on doctors to police overt stupidity.

Deepak says, "the responsibility lies with Ledger and the people around him." I think this statement includes his MDs, the people around him providing the meds, best able to judge his condition, and legally responsible for maintaining his health. At least the police would see it that way. And I don't scapegoat the MDs, Ledger obviously sought out the drugs and took them. However, quickie scripts for celebs are the norm, not the exception.

As a side note, there is enormous pressure on MDs from pharmaceutical companies to push opiates and benzos on people beyond their recommended dosage, use, and frequency. There have been recent (successful) lawsuits targeting this sketchy off-label practice. I am going to follow this story and see what the police find. Maybe Ledger went through a string of skeptical MDs looking for the ones who would put out, but my guess is that none of them thought twice about feeding off-label dope to a big-name celeb. This would make them accomplices, legally speaking.

I am with Silas. Quit finding scapegoats for weak people. This is tragic in every sense, and even if it was an accident (I still find that hard to believe), the responsibility lies with Ledger and the people around him for not recognizing the risks.

In response to Silas, it's interesting to contrast Ledger's case with that of Brad">[link] Renfro's. Renfro was well-known to be an addict and a junkie for years before finally winding up dead from illicit narcotics (heroin and morphine). Ledger was (presumably) hiding a growing addiction to junk and benzos and keeping it on the down-low with the help of prescribing physicians. I realize it is perfectly normal for someone to have many prescriptions for downers, but it is also perfectly normal for someone to get addicted to prescription junk and benzos while TRAINED PHYSICIANS either encourage more scripts or simply look the other way. If it was an accidental overdose someone (perhaps his MDs) should have told him not to mix benzos and opiates and alcohol and other things like antihistamine cough medicine/sleep aides. The going line is that Ledger had insomnia and stress-induced anxiety and needed chemical aides to get a good night sleep. Lot a good it did him.

I've been curious about this whole issue why people think the number of drugs he was on was so extreme. They didn't have to be a lot, and he didn't have to get them from the same doctor. I have occasional kidney stones, and the ER docs really push the oxy and hydro for that, so I always have a few half empty bottles lying around, put an anxiety disorder on top of that bam you've got the benzos, all legitimately prescribed by responsible doctors. Quit blaming the doctors and the pharm companies. Comon people, drugs don't take themselves. Geez.