The headline says, Tom Petty died of an accidental overdose.

Whoops.
He probably didn’t say, I want to use one more time.

Tom Petty was in pain, and as a life long addict, he turned to what he knew.

He didn’t use heroin again, or have one more drink. He wanted to stop hurting and took the prescribed pills designed to help.

Only as an addict — he took them all.

Whoops.

I remember one of the counsellors at the O saying — the next time, could be your last time.

We addicts like to think… okay, this addict likes to think… I could try — just one. If it doesn’t work out – I can always go into treatment, back to meetings, start over.

Except… whoops.

Tom Petty, Phillip Seymore Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Whitney Huston, Doug Mitchal, Liz Gurley, shall I go on? They didn’t commit suicide – they used.

Whoops.

Tom’s family said, “Many people who overdose begin with a legitimate injury or simply do not understand the potency and deadly nature of these medications.” They don’t mention that he
also struggled with a heroin addiction most of his life.

He broke his hip — he was in pain. He took some pain pills. He took a lot of them. We assume Tom Petty didn’t want to die.

I believe very few addicts think they will die when they take that drink, that needle, that pill.

They call it accidental, because dying was not quite what they had in mind.

Whoops. Damn.