Dying Like a Star

• Published in: American history Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 32 - 12
• Main Authors: Dorfman, Robert, Soule, Emily Berquist, Desai, Sukumar
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Harrisburg World History Group, LLC 01-08-2018; Weider History Group, Inc
• Subjects: Actors; Addictions; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Care and treatment; Celebrities; Complications and side effects; Death of; Drug overdose; Drug use; Monroe, Marilyn; Opioid abuse; Prescription drugs; United States; Los Angeles California
• ISSN: 1076-8866

Marilyn Monroe's life and death previewed the opioid epidemic By Robert Dorfman, Emily Berquist Soule, and Sukumar Desai IN 2017, OPIOID OVERDOSE OFFICIALLY BECAME the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50.Today's opioid crisis has no precedent, but Americans have been abusing drugs since the Civil War, when wounded soldiers were treated with morphine- an opiate to which many became addicted.[...]if prescription drug abuse had an epicenter in the 1950s, it was in Los Angeles at Schwab's Pharmacy on Sunset Boulevard, where Orson Welles shopped, Ava Gardner worked the soda fountain, and F. Scott Fitzgerald reportedly had a heart attack buying cigarettes.Dorfman Soule Desai Robert Dorfman, Emily Berquist Soule, and Sukumar Desai, MD, ("Dying Lilce a Star," p. 32), are, respectively, a research fellow in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Northwestern University, an associate professor of history at California State University, Long Beach, and an assistant professor of anesthesia, Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston.