Addictions come to life after death

(Today's column to dedicated to Don Hewitt, the founder and executive producer of "60 Minutes, who died Aug. 19 at age 86. He and his crew, including the late, great Ed Bradley, are major influences).

Commercials featuring the late pitchman extraordinaire Billy Mays still air and they are freaking me out.

From the idiot box, his image glows, hawking cheap little garden weeders. He filmed the commercials weeks before dying from sudden cardiac arrest and, well, there were all those gadgets to sell, so…

The deaths of Mays, Michael Jackson and Diane Schuler have held the nations' attention for weeks because they are tragedies with shocking twists.

(Left; Mays with a fan) The revelation that drugs – in Jackson’s case, the power anesthetic propofol and cocaine in Mays case - contributed to his death was shocking for many. But there were hints of problems for years. Research about the large pharmaceutical bills he owed...Something was up.

Mays, with the booming voice and trademark thick, ultra-black beard, appeared healthy. Then he died from SCA. Then the toxicology report was released, stunning many.

Nothing, however, prepared the news-consuming nation for the July 26 fatal accident involving Schuler. The 36-year-old Cablevision executive and mom drove her vehicle the wrong way along the Taconic Parkway and crashed, killing herself, her daughter, three nieces and three men in the SUV she hit.

Right away, Schuler was a news media darling. The 24-hour cable news beast and its insatiable audience served up and swallowed the surface story: The life of a straight, married suburban mom and executive tragically cut short. All that was true, but there was so much more.

(Left; Road on which Shuler fatally crashed) The Taconic is deadly! Fix the highways so this never happens again!, the shocked and grieving public demanded. State and federal officials scrambled to make it so. Then New York state police released the report that staggered the nation: Schuler was drunk and stoned the day of the fatal accident.

The King of Pop's people knew Jackson was fighting addiction. At least one of his siblings(probably La Toya, the chattiest and least talented one) told news media that the Jacksons were planning an intervention for Michael in 2007. For whatever reason, it never happened.

However, the families and friends of Mays and Schuler are like most people close to people with addictions. They did not see any of this coming. Or they are/were in denial.

Read this carefully. There are no judgment calls in this column. I appreciate the fact that Jackson and Mays elevated the profile of sudden cardiac arrest (I still think it is vital for people to be aware of SCA. I first became aware of it because of pulmonary and cardiac sarcoidosis. I try to do everything I can to keep the ticker and lungs as healthy as possible). I was as shocked as everyone else was when authorities said Schuler’s blood-alcohol level was 0.19 percent - or more than twice the legal limit. A New York Times reporter estimated that Schuler had consumed the equivalent of 10 shots of 80-proof liquor. She also had six grams of undigested alcohol in her stomach when she died.

The New York Times also reported, “There were high levels of a chemical found in marijuana, enough to pinpoint her last use at 15 minutes to an hour before her death.”

Cocaine use contributed to the heart disease that killed Mays, according to the report from the Hillsborough County, Fla., medical examiner. His wife discovered his body at their Tampa condo on June 28.

(Left image from a time when the King of Pop had the world by the you-know-whats) Jackson was...unique. He changed skin color before our eyes. He owned a pet chimp whom he dressed in a space suit. He sometimes wore a space suit. He made the wearing of a lone, sequenced white glove a fashion statement.

And he wrote and performed some of the most beautiful, brilliant pop music ever. His art will be enjoyed, mimicked and studied for generations to come. Unfortunately, his life will be publicly dissected until the end of time. But can there really be any more shocking revelations about Michael Jackson?

Mays and Schuler presented as ordinary people. Next door neighbors, if you will. And we are always shocked when we learn that our neighbors harbor dark secrets.

We have to remember that they are human. We need to be there for them if they are in need.