Tom Petty Died From Accidental Drug Overdose Involving Opioids, Coroner Says<br />They said: “We knew before the report was shared with us<br />that he was prescribed various pain medications for a multitude of issues including Fentanyl patches and we feel confident that this was, as the coroner found, an unfortunate accident.”<br />“As a family we recognize this report may spark a further discussion on the opioid crisis and we feel<br />that it is a healthy and necessary discussion and we hope in some way this report can save lives,” Mr. Petty’s family said.<br />Tom Petty, the chart-topping singer and songwriter, died in October from an accidental drug overdose as a result of mixing medications<br />that included opioids, the medical examiner-coroner for the county of Los Angeles announced on Friday, ending the mystery surrounding his sudden death last year.<br />“Many people who overdose begin with a legitimate injury or simply do not understand the potency and deadly nature of these medications.”<br />In 2016, the pop singer Prince was found to have died from an accidental overdose of self-administered<br />fentanyl, a synthetic opiate estimated to be more than 50 times more powerful than heroin.<br />In 2015, federal officials said that incidents and overdoses with fentanyl were “occurring at an alarming rate throughout the United States.” Drug<br />deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled from 2015 to 2016, according to the governmental account of nationwide drug deaths last year.