Posted 31 March 2012 - 07:54 AM
I'm not sure whether Amy continued to take occasional or other illegal drugs beyond the point at which she kicked her heroin / crack addictions. I suspect she used prescription drugs (most likely a valium) at times of high anxiety (such as prior to live performances) and on those occasions perhaps mixed them with alcohol. We know that there were no drugs other than small traces of librium in her system at the time of her death. We know that she relapsed into the drinking three days before dying, and probably stopped taking the librium at that point, hence only the small traces. There's really no reason I'm aware of to think that she took anything illegal over the last couple of years, though I may have missed something. Cocaine would have been the obvious choice for dealing with the trauma of live performing and most artists could get away with that but not Amy. I doubt she could have managed a drug like cocaine medicinally. She'd likely have hammered it and been totally unable to stop. She knew from painful experience that she was a highly addictive type.
Going back to the darkest days, the extraordinary thing with Amy was how quickly and how hard her addiction hit her. I have known and have worked with quite a few heroin and crack cocaine addicts and rarely have I seen a young person fall apart so quickly and emphatically under the influence of such a drug and the people I'm talking of did not have a strong support network, nor the finances to give them access to a 'clean' supply or quality medical care. In my experience, people continue to eat, keep themselves clean etc, at least for a while, until their health (mental and physical) deteriorates. It really was like a death wish with Amy. The neglect was almost instantaneous. I should say that none of the people I've known had to live with some of the pressures that Amy lived with. I think that basically she did not give a shit and was unsure at that point as to whether dying would actually be a bad thing, especially once Blake was jailed.
( boys, don't know..)
