Details are beginning to trickle down, and in a surprise turn of events, Amy Winehouse may have been using what some people would describe as "drugs" in order to get "high" on the day she died. Although the exact details are fuzzy until the autopsy is complete, it is believed she may have purchased cocaine, ketamine, and ecstasy. I read this and realized that she probably shouldn't have been doing those all at once, but I realized that each of them wouldn't kill you by themselves. That said, it appears that people on the Internet, reasonable as they are known for being are shitting a collective brick and either blaming her, the drugs, or just generally being confused. So today, let's just take a quick look at cocaine, ketamine, and ecstasy do to the human body.
Cocaine (benzoylmethylecgonine)
Cocaine is a stimulant that is extracted from a plant that grows naturally (speaking of which, when stoners say "I don't do unnatural shit, only plants, punch them in the fucking face, because even heroin is grown) in South America. It was extracted in the late 19th century, and used in several OTC medications for anything from toothaches and sore throats to just generally feeling like shit. It was outlawed in the early 20th century, though it should be noted that it can still be prescribed for use in certain eye and nasal passage surgeries.
Cocaine is responsible for many deaths each year. Both John Belushi and Chris Farley had cocaine in their systems when they died. Cocaine is also responsible for Sigmund Freud coming up with psychoanalysis, and most of Stephen King's novels.
The real danger from cocaine use is that it is cardiotoxic, or that it damages heart tissue over time. People who use cocaine for a long time have weakened hearts. This is compounded by its stimulant properties, which stress the heart during dosing. Death is usually caused by heart failure.
Ketamine
Ketamine is often referred to as a "horse tranquilizer" in the media, which has fueled a lot of hysteria surrounding its use. Strictly speaking, ketamine isn't a tranquilizer so much as a disassociative anesthetic. It works by binding to certain receptors in the brain and preventing you from remembering things. In low doses, you feel giggly and floaty, and higher doses make it so that even if you are in pretty extreme pain, you can't remember long enough to do anything about it.
Usually people freak out because of the horse tranquilizer label and think that this is the most dangerous chemical that anyone could do. In reality, it is probably the safest, as most people pass out before they can get enough into themselves to die. An interesting example of this is that my mother was given ketamine during my birth because I was a painful birth, and drugs the mother is given pass to the child. Traditional painkillers would have stopped my tiny lungs, but ketamine just left me with a permanent aura of strange to deal with.
Research now shows that ketamine is a very effective antidepressant, especially because it works immediately (traditional drugs take several weeks to have an effect) and it works in people where other treatments have already failed. It is also good at helping addicts quit other drugs, including heroin and alcohol. Currently it isn't an FDA approved treatment, although research is overwhelmingly positive, and doctors are glad to see that something that has so few negative side effects and dangers of toxicity may soon be an option in treatment.
"Ecstasy" (MDMA, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine)
This one is a bit tougher because ecstasy tablets are notorious for being adultered with other chemicals that are cheaper to produce than MDMA. While rumors of cocaine or heroin being used aren't true, in the past there have been several other combinations of drugs that produce a high similar to MDMA being used.
If we assume her pills were pure (she is Amy Fucking Winehouse after all) than MDMA is actually thought to be pretty safe when compared to other drugs.That said, there isn't a sure fire way to confirm it wasn't cut with some strange piperazine or structural analogue (please don't fear the chemistry terms) that has little history of human use. While MDMA has a history of medical use, it is no longer regulated, so ecstasy pills can contain any sort of strange.
What It Boils Down To
I don't know if Amy was trying to kill herself or if it was an accident. Really, until the autopsy is finished, no one knows if she died from drugs or natural causes. That said, it doesn't help to start placing blame right now, though that is the easiest thing to do. What it boils down to is that a combination of factors, including her genetics, social status, and coping skills, all contributed to a drug addiction disease. At least, that is the general consensus among scientists. Maybe it isn't true, and maybe you don't believe it. That's fine, just please leave it in the back of your mind right before you post on the internet about how someone deserves to die because of their addiction.
[EDIT: 24 July 2011, Jezebel has a pretty good write up on other people being douches]
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