drew pinsky, host of "dr. drew" on hln. we don't know what houston died of.waiting the toxicology results. what can happen to a human body when even a small amount of prescription drugs are mixed together, and, worse, when alcohol is added to that mix? >> you think about the umbrella term central nervous system depressants, a big term, but basically it means these medications, even in isolation can depress your central nervous system and affect the things you don't think about in your body, ability to regulate your heart rate and blood pressure and drive to breathe. it says something that people should try to be mindful of. when you add things together and mix in alcohol as well, it's not a 1 plus 1 equals 2 situation. when they say this term synergistic, they're saying in combination, they're somehow worse rather than being additive. the things you don't think about are affected, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing is a possibility with mixing these medications. >> dr. drew, whitney's last performance was with singer kelly price, impromptu two nights befor

pinsky says it only takes one anti-anxiety medication alone or in combination with alcohol to kill youwe'll talk to him shortly. he has very strong views on this latest celebrity death. we'll have a lot more on houston's battle with addiction and reports she was drinking as recently as friday night and thursday with her friend, singer kelly price. i'll hear from kelly price as well. first, what we know so far about whitney houston's final days. on thursday night, whitney houston takes the stage in what would be her last public performance. video taken at a party celebrating her friend, kelly price's grammy nomination. she hugs price on stage and launches into an impromptu performance singing "jesus loves me." ♪ >> houston reportedly partied late into the night. these pictures show her looking disheveled. according to tmz.com, houston had a tense argument with another singer at the party. when she left, this photo of her was taken that appeared to show something that looked like blood dripping down her legs. cnn has not independently confirmed this. friends say houston was in good spiri

drew pinsky, host of the dr.show on hln and publicist to the stars who helped mariah carey reinvent her career after she suffered a "physical and emotional breakdown." dr. drew i want to start with you and your reaction to what we just heard don lemmon report from a source who said that whitney houston's was drinking alcohol before 10:00 a.m. on some of the days right before her death, even accusing a bartender of watering down her drink. >> right. well, it's very sad. i basically have a couple of comments to make. one is, everyone has repeatedly reported that the night before she died that she was toasting and drinking champagne. and for somebody -- that has been reported from many different avenues, different sources. and for someone with her chronic, long-standing drug history having just been at a treatment program in may, that is -- that is an emergency. that is somebody that people should have pulled -- just seeing that people should have pulled her aside and said, honey, we've got to get back in the progra

drew pinsky on host of dr. d drew. what do you make of this report of whitney being seen drinking in the hotel over the weekend? >> a couple things, anderson. one is -- i hate to think that we have to have this report of humiliating behavior to understand that simply, if she's drinking she's in harm's way. the fact that there were multiple reports of her toasting and partying a couple nights before her death, should have been enough for anyone near her to understand that she was in real serious trouble. we don't have to, necessarily, bring in these other stories that sound rather humiliating but not surprising. the fact is the level of consumption that's being report begins to make sense in terms of the potential of causing respiratory suppression. adding that alcohol to the level that's been reported to one or two of those benbenzo could kee her from breathing. >> don't plenty of people that take xanax drink and not end up dead? >> anderson, people are accusing me of getting excited about this story and i'm getting an

pinski ariarti.e says the camera can be deceiving, but it does look like he was looking down somewhere near her person. he is a medical doctor. maybe he saw a growth. maybe it's a skin problem. >> he is a doctor. >> he has x-ray vision too. >> let me show you what his wife looks like. the president of finland. she looks like conan o'brien. >> a little bit. >> yeah, a little bit. >> conan referred to it in his tv show. >> her name is taria. >> either way, whatever this guy was looking at, he got caught in an embarrassing moment. >> yeah. good story, gale. thank you for bringing it. >>> mixed martial arts time. you know something crazy is about to happen. >> this is worse than scoring on your own hoop in basketball. >> see the knock-out punch and it's not what you think. and it's time for the stars to hit the red carpet. sunday is academy awards night. >> yeah, everyone knows that. >> but have you seen the video on how to care for oscar? we've got it on "right this minute." ow)r@u9 >>> welcome back too

drew pinsky about the circumstances surrounding her death. dr.tart out with the fact that we don't know what whitney houston died of. died o. we do know that she had a history of addiction, that she had been to rehab, it sounds like a couple times, if not more. it's human nature when someone dies young to blame something or someone. let's take it out of the whitney houston file but when you look at the case of a drug addict, whether it's for prescription drugs or otherwise, where is the blame? >> well, boy, let me just start by saying although we don't have absolute confirmation, we have an autopsy where there are no causes of death, meaning there's no heart disease, no lung disease, no strokes. when a drug addict dies young, i've never seen a situation -- and i mean never -- where drug addiction didn't figure into that demise. when it comes to who's to blame, i don't think in terms of blame. but if we're going to prescribe blame, certainly the addict has some role. abstinence is their goal. they know they are not supposed to be drinking or takin

before we go to piers, i want to go to drew pinsky helping us as well. dr. drew, we want to pay tribute to whitney and remember the good things about her and the extraordinary voice and talent that she did possess. we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the possibilities, just the possibilities of what might have happened and some of the issues that whitney dealt with in her life. doctor drew? we lost dr. drew. piers morgan is standing by. piers morgan is standing by. i thought it was interesting when you spoke with simon cowell and i got to jump in and he mentioned the same thing that we should be honoring whitney houston. go ahead. >> i think there is a fine line when these tragic events happen. when you have somebody who had such a well-documented history of problems and terrible issues to do with substance abuse and brutal marriage and so on, there is a temptation to dwello that. this is the night that a remarkable talent has been taken from us and it is important to focus on that talent and her as a human being and the impact she had on the world. w

drew pinsky has been following the story closely. he joins me. i don't understand this. are you surprised by this new person, this new information that a woman in her 30s has now apparently come down with similar symptoms? >> not necessarily. this could still be convergent, and many of the folks having the reaction, we're finding there's a common thread of significant trauma in their background. this woman suffered severe trauma. what we're trying to do is connect the relationship among the womens to understand how this might have spread. convergeant disorder can sometimes have medical issues that are contributing to it, precipitating to it, making it more likely to occur. the fact it's convergent doesn't rule out the environmental influences. those are pursued aggressively. in the meantime, the diagnosis gives the doctors in that vicinity something to work on, and most of them are getting better. >> explain that because i find it fascinating, it's also called mass hysteria. one person starts this, and others join in? >> right, the salem witch trials, something that peop

drew pinsky is here with that sickness producing hysteria in upstate new york.s going to be talking about his support for mccain in the past and bush in the past. who will he be supporting this time around? we'll find out and play video games. >> brian: our next guest earned four world series rings. and over 3,000 strikeouts. he was pretty good. joining me is former major league pitcher, curt shilling and video game inventer, i should add so that and you have a passion for politics. welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> brian: you following the gop? i know it. i saw you at the super bowl. >> i am busy. yes. i'm obviously following like everybody else, but i'm so crushed that i've been kind of overwhelmed. >> brian: have you seen enough for you to get behind any one candidate? because i know in the past you supported people like scott brown and john mccain? >> no. i haven't. >> brian: do you think this race is hurting or helping the process the way they're going at each other? >> brian: we say this every -- >> we say this every four years, this is the dirtiest we'

before we go to piers, i want to go to drew pinsky helping us as well. dr.rew, we want to pay tribute to whitney and remember the good things about her and the extraordinary voice and talent that she did possess. we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the possibilities, just the possibilities of what might have happened and some of the issues that whitney dealt with in her life. doctor drew? we lost dr. drew. piers morgan is standing by. i thought it was interesting when you spoke with simon cowell and i got to jump in and he mentioned the same thing that we should be honoring whitney houston. go ahead. >> i think there is a fine line when these tragic events happen. when you have somebody who had such a well-documented history of problems and terrible issues to do with substance abuse and brutal marriage and so on, there is a temptation to dwello that. this is the night that a remarkable talent has been taken from us and it is important to focus on that talent and her as a human being and the impact she had on the world. we know what's going to happen i

drew pinsky has been following the story closely. he joins me. i don't understand this.urprised by this new person, this new information that a woman in her 30s has now apparently come down with similar symptoms? >> not necessarily. this could still be convergent, and many of the folks having the reaction, we're finding there's a common thread of significant trauma in their background. this woman suffered severe trauma. what we're trying to do is connect the relationship among the womens to understand how this might have spread. convergeant disorder can sometimes have medical issues that are contributing to it, precipitating to it, making it more likely to occur. the fact it's convergent doesn't rule out the environmental influences. those are pursued aggressively. in the meantime, the diagnosis gives the doctors in that vicinity something to work on, and most of them are getting better. >> explain that because i find it fascinating, it's also called mass hysteria. one person starts this, and others join in? >> right, the salem witch trials, something that people are fam

drew pinsky.t have slowly begun to come out about whitney houston's final hours, what do you make about this? >> think about this, anderson. there are leagues of rock stars that poured terrible amount of drugs in their system, they're still with us because they didn't get into the pharmaceutical spectrum. these days, drugs find their way to benzodiazepines, and oral opiums and a doctor prescribed them and they're all dead. >> what do you mean by ben do diazepimes and oral opiums? >> it's the kinds of medications you're hearing about now having been found at her bedside. it hasn't been yet confirmed but it will be what it turns out to be and oral opiums are pain can i recalls, vicodin, codeine. that combination with alcohol suppresses respiration and people stop breathing. what's happening in hollywood is merely a reflection what's going on in our country. that same day whitney died, thousands of other people with 'dicks died, prescription-related death. >> there is the feeling because of prescript

drew pinsky joins us to talk about her battle to stay clean and what may have happened to her in thatom. plus the future of her daughter left behind. 18-year-old bobbi kristina brown. those stories and more on syria. all that and tonight's ridiculist. >>> his plans for, well, what china's going to do to the united states. after all, we like to say china owns us. really? the man who knows him best. the american who knows him best is next. >>> president obama's fight with the republicans takes a big turn today. did the gop cave? [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-se

drew pinsky of hln's dr. drew. dr. drew, let me ask you something.ou have been, i think, a champion over the past week for saying over and over again that the adults around whitney houston who knew she was at a party, who knew she was drinking were fooling themselves if they said oh, she's okay. knowing the problems that she had leading up to her death. in that environment, what are your thoughts for an 18-year-old who is in that same environment? >> well, we have two issues here. one is an individual, whitney houston, who had chronic, recurrent, recalcitrant addiction, who was treated and failed multiple times, who continued to drink and use, and people around her co-signing that, saying oh, isn't it wonderful she's out socializing, toasting with champagne, as opposed to saying, my goodness, we have a very serious problem here with whitney. she is in harm's way, she's still drinking, she cannot maintain abstinence, we've got to get her out of the limelight, away from work and into treatment. that is one issue. the other issue is poor bobbi kristina.

drew pinsky weighs in. >>> plus, the sensational murder for hire on the cheerleading spot that landsnews exclusive. >>> that teacher thinks we're doing a story on the school where she teaches. but that guy holding the ring is planning on surprising her with a live engagement. stay with us on this valentine's day edition of "gma." ♪ [ mom ] we didn't know where to go next with eric's adhd. his stimulant medicine was helping, but some symptoms were still in his way. so the doctor kept eric on his current medicine and added nonstimulant intuniv to his treatment plan. [ male announcer ] for some children like eric, adding once-daily nonstimulant intuniv to their stimulant has been shown to provide additional adhd symptom improvement. don't take if allergic to intuniv, its ingredients, or taking other medicines with guanfacine like tenex®. intuniv may cause serious side effects such as low blood pressure, low heart rate, fainting, and sleepiness. intuniv may affect the ability to drive or use machinery. other side effects include nausea, tiredness, trouble sleeping, stomach pain, and dizz