Atlas Monitor | 23 May 2017
Chris Cornell’s death chimes with Joy Division’s Ian Curtis’ whose suicide was attributed to medication he was taking for epilepsy
The news of the death of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell on Thursday night NZ time sent shock waves around the world.
Reports on Friday morning that Cornell committed suicide compounded the shock. Nothing could prepare music fans for such a devastating bombshell.
The proposition that rock music’s most powerful vocalist with immeasurable songwriting talent, who fronted bands and led a scene that came to define the sound of the 1990s, had killed himself in his hotel room soon after a concert in Detroit was inconceivable. Leaving behind a beautiful and loving family and enviable career with an iconic status was simply unimaginable.
Cornell’s history of alcohol and drug use as well as putative bouts of depression were put forward as possible explanations. Reports of dropping hints at his current state of mind on social media posts was pervasive in media coverage.
Reports from punters at the show suggested something seemingly wrong with Cornell. Some suggested he wasn’t quite right and somewhat sluggish and disoriented, perhaps even struggling to perform to his usual high standard.
Cornell’s wife Vicky has stated that she noticed Chris was slurring his words in a telephone conversation she had with him after the show at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.
By Saturday morning it was revealed that Cornell had been using the benzodiazepine Ativan (lorazepan) to treat anxiety.
Vicky Cornell and family attorney Kirk Pasich have disputed the medical examiner’s findings that suggest Chris killed himself deliberately and believe his anxiety medication is to blame. In fact Cornell’s bodyguard, who also happens to be Heidi Klum’s Aussie ex, Martin Kirsten found Chris Cornell dead after giving him two Ativan pills.
Ativan is considered potentially hazardous to people with a history of drug use and depression. The fact that Chris Cornell was given it beggars belief.
According to prize-winning investigative journalist and New York Times best-selling author Christopher Byron, benzodiazepines such as Ativan have well documented problems. Byron notes that:
Lorazepam: Brand name Ativan, this drug has figured in an array of well-publicized homicides and suicides by those using it. Ativan surfaced in the 2000 divorce case between Washington, D.C., socialite Patricia Duff and her husband, Wall Street billionaire Ronald Perelman. In deposition testimony, Perelman acknowledged taking Ativan as an anti-anxiety drug during his separation from Duff and the commencement of divorce proceedings. The period was marked by numerous outbursts by Perelman and at least two physical assaults on Duff. In 2008, news reports revealed that Ativan was being used by the U.S. Customs Service to keep suspected terrorists sedated while deporting them to detention facilities abroad.
Dr Joseph Mercola has examined the many problems with benzodiazepines and in particular that it bio-accumulates and can cause an overdose. Dr Mercola notes:
Over time, these drugs can accumulate in your body, which will increase your risk of an accidental overdose. Even at regular doses, these are mind-altering drugs, and as such have been linked to a seriously increased risk of getting into a car accident if you attempt to drive while taking them.8 Other common side effects of this class of drugs, regardless of age, include:
- Unsteady gait, and falling
- Dizziness
- Hip fractures
- Drug-induced or drug-worsened impairment of thinking, memory loss
- Cancer and premature death
Although shocking this not all that surprising. Prescription drugs kill more people than cocaine according to leading pathologist Professor Jack Crane, State Pathologist for Northern Ireland. In fact these drugs kill more people than cars and guns.
According to the FDA’s own data every year there are 2 million serious adverse reactions to properly prescribed and administered pharmaceutical drugs; including over 100,000 deaths in America. It is estimated that barely over one percent of all adverse reactions are reported.
A 2013 study “A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care,” by JT James (J Patient Saf, Sept. 9, 2013). Found that
… the true number of premature deaths [in US hospitals] associated with preventable harm to patients was estimated at more than 400,000 per year.
The study also found that
Serious harm seems to be 10- to 20-fold more common than lethal harm.
According to internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author Dr David Healy who is also the co-founder of RxISK there is a connection between suicide and prescription drugs. This is not just about psychotropic or anti-psychotic drugs but pharmaceuticals across the board. As Dr Healy notes:
Even less known is that a range of drugs like the statins, acne drugs, weight loss drugs, anti-smoking drugs and asthma drugs are also linked to suicide
Pharmacological death and injury is a well established fact and even has a designated term – that is iatrogenesis, which is defined as
Iatrogenesis (from the Greek for “brought forth by the healer”) refers to any effect on a person, resulting from any activity of one or more persons acting as healthcare professionals or promoting products or services as beneficial to health, that does not support a goal of the person affected.
Until a credible toxicology report is released publicly we can only speculate as to what really caused Chris Cornell’s tragic death. As I have previously written, there are serious questions to be raised about modern medicine under the current and dominant allopathic model. It is entirely posible that Cornell’s death was not in fact suicide but a result of one or more myriad contraindications asscoiated with Ativan.
To suggest that Big Pharma killed Chris Cornell is not hyperbole or sensationalism but a statement backed up with a catalogue of evidence. This article barely scratches the surface.
Even mainstream media are making the connection, such as in this Rolling Stone article.
As fans around the world struggle to come to terms with this immeasurable loss we should recall that this is not an isolated event nor the first time a music legend has succumbed to the insidious effect of the sorcery conducted by Big Pharma.
Almost 37 years to the day, Joy Division’s singer Ian Curtis died [18 May 1980] which was reportedly suicide by hanging. It later emerged that he had suffered from severe epilepsy and that the medication he was prescribed only added to his depression.
Let’s not forget about Michael Jackson, where benzodiazepine reared its ugly head and Prince.
Over the weekend musicians such as U2, Ryan Adams, Metallica and Living Colour paid tribute to Chris Cornell. During a show in Auckland, New Zeland Adams performed Blackhole Sun which contains the poignant lyric ‘no-one sings like you anymore’.
No-one sang like Chris Cornell with his near four-octave range and control and power. His songwriting incorporated Led Zeppelin’s bright open-tunings and Black Sabbath’s dark de-tunings and sludgey half-time rythmnic grind. All of this was performed with punk attitude and swagger of the Stooges, Ramones and MC5.
I was a late teen and twenty-something during the 1990s. This period was perhaps the most exciting and formative time of my life. Leaving home to attend university, flatting with friends and ultimately meeting my partner and future mother of my kids was all experienced to the soundtrack of Chris Cornell’s songs and voice whether it was delivered in the format of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog or his solo project.
This is my tribute to one of my all time favourite musicians and one of the greatest voices in rock music history. I hope it goes some way to understanding what happened to Chris Cornell.
RIP brother. ‘Say hello to heaven’.
Cornell’s funeral is set for Friday in Los Angeles.
Chris Cornell (born Christopher John Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSdWkN6bW5k&w=854&h=480]
