Wacko demanded Propofol: Nurse

she could not persuade the pop star to avoid the drug that ultimately led to his death in 2009.
Nurse Cherilyn Lee, a nutritionist who worked with Jackson, testified for the defence in the widely watched trial of Dr Conrad Murray, who has been accused of involuntary manslaughter in the singer’s death.
Earlier Tuesday, defence attorneys told the judge they would not call Murray to the stand to testify on his own behalf, preferring to use witnesses such as Lee to show Jackson was drug dependent and highly motivated to obtain propofol.
Lee told jurors she tried to give Jackson natural remedies to deal with his insomnia. But in April 2009, just over two months before Jackson died of an overdose of propofol and sedatives on June 25, he asked her about the surgical anesthetic and said it was the only thing that helped him sleep.
“I know this will knock me out. As soon as it gets into my vein I am knocked out and I am asleep,” Lee quoted Jackson as telling her on that date.
Lee said she researched propofol and learned of its significant side effects, and that it was only supposed to be administered for surgery or in a hospital setting.
She told Jackson the drug could lead to him forgetting his singing lines, and that it was not to be administered in a home setting, but that the singer seemed unpersuaded. Lee said she never agreed to help Jackson get propofol, and never saw him after that April meeting. Murray has admitted to giving Jackson nearly daily doses of propofol for sleep at the singer’s Los Angeles mansion, but his attorneys argue that on the day the singer died, Jackson gave himself an extra, fatal dose.
Randy Phillips, president and CEO of concert promotion company AEG Live, said he had no plans to cancel Jackson’s 50 comeback concerts dubbed “This Is It,” despite the singer missing rehearsals and occasionally seeming unprepared in the days and weeks before he died. Murray’s attorneys have sought to show Jackson was feeling anxious about the London shows, which were to start on July 13, and his anxiety could have contributed to a possible decision to take more drugs on the day he died.
But “no one on our end was contemplating pulling the plug,” Phillips said, adding that AEG’s contract with Jackson would make it difficult to end the shows.
Phillips said Jackson assured him he was ready to perform. “What he said was, ‘You build the house and I’ll put on the door and paint it,'” Phillips said.
Loyola Law School professor Stan Goldman, who has been in the courtroom observing the trial, said that comment could help the defense because it shows Jackson was willing to do things himself, including possibly taking propofol.
But the defense has suffered other setbacks in two days of calling witnesses, Goldman said, especially when Jackson’s longtime physician, Dr Allan Metzger, said on Monday that no amount of money would lead him to give the singer propofol.
“That was a pretty devastating comment,” Goldman said. – Reuters Life!