Drug That May Be Key in MJ Death Probe

With the investigation of Michael Jackson's death zeroing in on what drugs the pop singer took and who provided them, an upcoming toxicology report will be essential to whether anyone will be criminally charged, observwers say.

The powerful anesthetic Diprivan, also known as Propofol, was among the drugs found in Jackson's rented Los Angeles mansion. Not meant for home use, the drug is used by anesthesiologists to induce comas, according to Dr. Omar Manejwala, who discussed it on "The Early Show" Friday.

Manejwala, of The Farley Center in Williamsburg, Va., is one of a very small number of physicians in the nation who's treated a significant number of patients for Diprivan abuse or addiction. Such an addiction, he said is "quite rare," with exact figures unknown, but there's a suspected incidence of 1-in-1,000, based on an e-mail survey among anesthesiology program directors.

Manejwala told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith Diprivan is used to make people feel nothing. However, when people emerge from Diprivan, he said, some feel a "sense of euphoria."

"What happens with Diprivan addictions occasionally," he said, "is people try to play with the doses and get the doses within a window before they induce coma."

Manejwala told CBS News health professionals -- nurses, anesthesiologists, or nurse anesthetists -- are often the ones addicted to Diprivan, because they have access to it.

But what about other people -- such as Jackson? Could anyone get access to Diprivan?

"Well, that depends on where people are," Manejwala said. "Up until a few years ago, (Diprivan) really wasn't controlled very much at all. Now, some centers have begun to control access to Diprivan. By and large, it's still not controlled the way medicines like Fentanyl or more powerful addictive (anesthetic) medicines are."

Though an addiction to Diprivan is rare, Manejwala said addiction itself is common.

"The main message is that addiction is extremely treatable," Manejwala said. "And the outcomes for this agent aren't exactly known, but in my experience, they fall in line with treatment for other addictive disorders."

"Once the addiction develops, the use becomes compulsive," he said.

Manejwala said people who become addicted to Diprivan often have a history of trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder.

"What they're trying to do is blot out the experience of life in some way," he said. "So life becomes so difficult for them that they use the Diprivan in order to magically disappear."

The Los Angeles Police Department, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and California attorney general's office, is trying to determine how the medications got into Michael Jackson's home, authorities have said.