Toxicology Test Find Traces of Nine Drugs

Speculation surrounding the cause of funk-singer Rick James’sdeath in early August can now cease as a coroner’s report releasedThursday stated that nine drugs, including cocaine, metamphetamine, valium and vicodin, were found in his system.

Although the report clearly states that thepresence of the drugs was not the cause of James’s death, it didnote that they most likely contributed to the heart failure the56-year-old experienced in his sleep on August 6 in his Los Angeleshome.  He was found in bed at roughly at 9 AM by his personalassistant and was pronounced dead at 9:20 when paramedicsarrived.

The Los Angeles County coroner took over thecase after the family attributed James’s death to natural causesand because the hit singer had not visited his physician inweeks.  According to the report, an autopsy failed toestablish the cause upon which time toxicology tests wereordered.

Traces of prescription medicine for anxiety,pain relief, and heart failure were found in the body but thereport maintains that none of the levels or combinations proved tobe life threatening.

The singer, who dubbed himself an “icon ofdrug use and eroticism,” also suffered from diabetes, a diseasethat the American Diabetes Association say affects 18.2 millionpeople in the United States, and had been having heart problemssince his 1998 stroke.

Rick James is most known for his 1981 hit,”Super Freak.”  He recently completed his memoir “Confessionsof a Super Freak, and the book and television movie plans are setto resume at a later date.