The news and internet were all a-twitter when Amy Winehouse died. Lots of shaking of the head and “I told you so’s” were going around. The general assumption was that she finally OD’d on whatever it was she was taking. The initial autopsy was inconclusive. That just set off more snark, “They just aren’t sure which drug killed her..” was a common joke running around. Now that the toxicology reports have come back inconclusive as well, I’m not hearing anything about it.
I assume that if she actually did OD on something it would show up in both the toxicology and probably the autopsy. Is there a recreational drug out there that kills you and leaves no obvious trace? So if she didn’t OD, what killed her? Her family thinks that the stress of quitting drinking cold turkey did her in.
People forget just how nasty alcohol is. It’s bad enough when you’re drinking and wrecking everyone’s lives, but even stopping drinking can be dangerous. Her family had begged her to quit gradually in order to avoid the worst of withdrawal symptoms but she decided that it was either cold turkey or nothing. In hindsight, that wasn’t a very good decision, but I can see her reasoning. If you really do have a drinking problem, having “just a little” isn’t always possible.
We still don’t know what happened but it does look like Amy died from her abuse as opposed to a specific event. It’s also plausible that her effort to quit is what got her in the end. Alcohol is just as dangerous as any other addicting drug, we should never forget that.