Actor Cory Monteith died from “mixed drug toxicity, involving heroin and alcohol,” according to the British Columbia Coroner’s Service.
NBC News reports the death of the 31-year-old Glee star, who was deceased for several hours when his body was discovered in his hotel room in Vancouver on Saturday, was accidental. According to the coroner’s report, the investigation in ongoing.
Monteith had been public about his battle with alcohol and drugs and had checked himself into rehab to battle substance addiction in March. He thanked his fans and supporters, which included girlfriend and costar Lea Michele, when he completed treatment a month later.
The Canadian-born actor was due to begin filming season five of the popular FOX musical-comedy series in two weeks. There’s no word yet on how writers will incorporate Monteith’s death into the storyline.
B Damion
Jesus!..such a beautiful man. What a horrible waste of life.
Jayson
I used to look down at people that used drugs; thinking why can’t they get their act
together!?. Then my niece became a heroine addict and at 22 is serving her second
prison sentence. Sadly, she left a child behind that for whatever reason,is healthy
and doing well. Now, my thought process is more understanding due to my family
situation. I’m not a drug addict and I have no idea how they feel or what they go
through, so I can’t judge. This sad outcome only proves, that no matter what you have
in your life, if you are not in that person’s shoes, you cannot judge. I feel sad for
for him and his family. It’s not an easy thing to deal with for all involved. I know
have a beautiful great niece and I love her and will do every thing in my power to
see that she doesn’t follow in her mother’s foot steps.
Whup-Ass Master
What a sad, ugly little story. 31.
Ron Jackson
Awful. One wonders what demons were loosed inside that boys mind.
tardis
@Ron Jackson: Perhaps his only demons were his addiction, maybe he wasn’t a tortured individual.
HeroQueero
Addiction is a symptom of something else in a person’s life. People become addicted to all sorts of things, usually to escape personal issues and trauma. An individual may not be able to stop someone else from becoming an addict, but you can provide what the addicted person needs most: love and understanding. When people feel alone and abandoned, they may turn to drugs and alcohol for temporary escape from loneliness and rejection. Compassion may not be able to stop all serious addictions in the end, but its presence may just be able to prevent the use of deadly substances in the first place.
May Cory find peace and love in his next incarnation.
curan
There is *NO* relation between a person’s moral qualities and their affinity for drugs and alcohol or associated addictive tendencies.
Alcohol addiction is an inherited, genetic trait. We no longer condemn people who are left handed or who have red hair, and similarly we should not condemn people with addictive tendencies.
The COMBINE study demonstrates conclusively that there are proven methods for management of this condition:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945872/
“…the patient groups who demonstrated the best (statistical) drinking outcomes after 16 weeks of outpatient treatment had received naltrexone with MM counseling alone… Thus, the results of the COMBINE study demonstrated that a pharmacotherapy, like naltrexone, when given with medical counseling that emphasizes taking medications as prescribed, can yield clinically significant outcomes (reduced drinking/increased abstinence) that are either as compelling, and under some conditions, more compelling than those observed with specialty behavioral therapy. One important implication of the COMBINE results is that naltrexone with MM can be delivered in healthcare settings where traditional specialty treatment is unavailable. Receiving treatment directly from their primary healthcare provider could greatly expand treatment options for persons with an alcohol disorder.”
Treatment details and links to further reading can be found at this wiki, where a 75% success rate is documented:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Method
The real reason that these techniques are so seldom used for those who suffer a distressful affinity to drugs and alcohol is that the patents have expired on the naltrexone family. Our addictions “industry” cannot be profitable with the best science, so we instead turn to the failure of A.A. and other abstinence-based approaches.
It is a shame that we have lost another victim to a preventable disease. Alas, there will be many more needless multitudes.
Spike
Wow, what a shock. NOT. As per my previous post on topic . . . no shortage of blind items in reference to this guy and his two lives, the good sober boy when in the US filming or promoting Glee, and the hard core addict alcoholic when in Canada. No way this comes to a surprise that anyone that was close to him. Blame it on his addiction, call it a disease, or call it what it was, a guy that chose drugs and and alcohol over everything else.
mz.sam
For someone who was vocal about his past addiction but publicly denied it…it was too little, too late. No sympathies here…but prayers and condolences goes out to Cory’s grieving parents. Oh yes…and there’s Michelle. RIP.
curan
@Spike: The affinity is not a choice. It never was.
http://books.google.com/books?id=OO-6QneSNisC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=AA+rats+sinclair+%22bad+rats%22&source=bl&ots=pww9bQkNjT&sig=_SXi1kep9uj-5zcYhAAahYfWIQI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0tvlUdO9IqHBywHRgYHICQ&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=AA%20rats%20sinclair%20%22bad%20rats%22&f=false
Mark Jenkins
@Spike: you may “choose” to try drugs or alcohol to escape problems in your personal or professional life- but it sometimes doesn’t remain a choice for long. If one suffers from an addictive personality disorder, it can be impossible to resist. For whatever reason, I was able to quit crank (meth) cold turkey twice in my life- I still crave it, though and have a hard time resisting if someone offers it to me. I just have to remember how it wrecks your sinus, and the horrible feelings you get when you’re coming down-not to mention the severe personality changes it wreaks on you when you can’t afford any more. I guess what I’m getting at here is that it’s not always a choice we’re capable of making, once addiction sets in. I am one of the blessed ones, apparently, in that I’m able to stay away from it. On the other hand, I have a cousin in an Idaho jail doing his second term for DUI- apparently he still hasn’t learned the lesson that he and alcohol don’t mix.
Gigi Gee
@mz.sam: re: “No sympathies here…” Stay classy Sam.
Spike
@curan: Cut/paste. Gotcha blame the rats for being alcoholics and that gives this kid a convenient pass. Sorry, humans have the power of choice, no one forced this guy to mix drugs and alcohol in lethal doses, he did it to himself, he also knew his tendency to do so. He chose and now he’s dead. You can blame it on the rats, I blame it on the human.
curan
@Spike: Do you blame a man on crutches when he falls down the stairs?
We as humans have never been free from the bondage of our own desires. Who are you, or I, to blame anyone for the quality of their chains?
If you do not judge, you will not be judged. If you forgive, you will be forgiven.
Now where did I hear that?
HernanMinogue
Wow Heroin? I would have never imagined him using that drug. He was too young, RIP Cory
Spike
@curan: Wow, spoken as a true 12 stepper! BTW, a man on crutches, should take the elevator, if he chooses to take the stairs, falls, and breaks his neck, while I’m sure you will blame the stairs, I blame him.
Jackhoffsky
I have done (will do) MANY different kinds of drugs. One drug I will not do is heroin. Early in my gay life my best friend died of a heroin overdose the second time he tried it. And it wasn’t like he did it two times in a row… it was a month or so between injections. That stuck with me – could have been a bad batch, could have been mixed wrong, could have been many things.
If Cory had addiction issues, it doesn’t necessarily mean he was ALWAYS on it, or always craving it. It could just be he wanted to “relax” (or whatever excuse) by himself before starting to shoot the next season of Glee. Whatever the case, this is a sad event. My heart goes out to the family and Lea (of course), but to everyone who has lost someone due to that drug.
Raine
My condolences to his dear family. Addiction is an amazingly destructive disease. He was sadly not as actively and consistent with his recovery. One can be not physically taking substances/or engaged in destructive behaviour such as gambling or sex addiction but his mindset could still be caught up or what some refer in recovery as “dry drunk” mentality.
The PR relationship/Hollywood lifestyle pressures probably were triggers and didn’t encourage sobriety. Mallory seems like she’s aware of that HW scene & was quietly with Cory when publicly he was on the red carpet with his co-worker. Seemed he lived a very double life: what he seemingly promoted on Glee youth themes vs. what he really was doing in real self destructiveness.
Whup-Ass Master
How ugly you all get. Whew. This is a sad, ugly story about a beautiful, talented guy who died of heroin and alcohol poisoning at the age of 31. It is not that complicated but it soars above your petty rhetoric and politicizing.
mz.sam
The shock of Cory’s life of his sudden death for Hollywood and devoted Glee fans (including TMZ) stemmed from the strong-armed security of Ryan Murphy and the Fox executives to shield the Glee cast from scandalous public behavior…the way old Hollywood would protect their contract stars from bad press and publicity. And all the while Cory was living a double-life: a clean Glee family existence in the midst of a paparazzi-swarmed Hollywood vs. his private addictions with personal friends in hometown British Colombia. The creator and wizard of Glee’s strategy proved highly effective.