Mac Miller's drug dealer charged for supplying fatal dose of fentanyl

Fentanyl is described as America's deadliest drug.

By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI, REUTERS
U.S. rapper Mac Miller. (photo credit: REUTERS)
U.S. rapper Mac Miller.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
One year, practically to the day, after rapper Mac Miller's overdose, the 26-year-old musician's drug dealer was charged with supplying the artist with the fatal dose of fentanyl that killed him.
Miller was found dead at his apartment on September 7, 2018, after struggling with substance abuse for years.
The rapper was born to a Christian father and Jewish mother and has spoken openly about growing up Jewish. He had a Star of David tattoo on his hand.
The dealer, a Los Angeles man who prosecutors say supplied counterfeit oxycodone laced with fentanyl to rapper Miller two days before his death, was arrested on Wednesday on federal drug trafficking charges.
Cameron James Pettit, 28, is accused of delivering the pills to Miller.
"We've seen too many tragic deaths," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Jacobs said outside court. "People should know that if they consume black market opioid pills they are playing Russian roulette. It could be a genuine pill or it could be laced with something that will leave them dead on the spot."
According to the criminal complaint, Pettit delivered the 10 blue pills to Miller at a Hollywood recording studio shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, along with Xanax and cocaine.
Because Pettit was slow in arriving with the drugs, Miller contacted a madam he knew from previous transactions, the court papers said, and she sent a prostitute to the studio with oxycodone, Xanax, Adderall, hydrocodone and cocaine.
Prosecutors say forensic analysis and circumstantial evidence show that it was the pills brought by Pettit that contained fentanyl.
Fentanyl is described as America's deadliest drug by comic Hasan Minhaj, who hosts a show on Netflix called Patriot Act that explores today's cultural and political landscape in weekly episodes.
"Fentanyl is often called the third wave of the opioid crisis," Minhaj says. "The first wave was when doctors were over-prescribing painkillers like oxycodone. The second wave happened when addicted patients then turned to heroine. And the third wave is fentanyl."
Minhaj said that fentanyl is "50 times stronger than heroine," proceeding to show a dose of fentanyl that could kill an elephant in a photograph compared to a US penny. The drug barely covered 1/10 of the penny's surface.


Related Tags
rapper
mac miller