News 12 at 11; July 3, 2009

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A powerful sedative, normally confined to
hospital operating rooms, has been found in the rented home where
Michael Jackson died in Los Angeles.

That word from a law enforcement official.

The drug is called Diprivan. It's an anesthetic widely used to
put patients to sleep and it's milky color earned it the nickname
"milk of amnesia." Diprivan is given intravenously. It's very
unusual to find in it somebody's home.

Jackson is known to have been plagued with insomnia. Cherilyn
Lee, a private nurse who worked with Jackson, says she repeatedly
rejected his pleas for Diprivan, which she says he wanted to help
him cope with the stress of preparing for his comeback concerts.
Lee says she did everything she could to warn him against it.

Doctors from the Mayo Clinic issued a warning last year that
Diprivan can lead to "an irreversible chain of events," ending in
death.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)