The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office has revealed that UGK member Chad “Pimp C.” Butler’s death was caused by prescription cough syrup and a preexisting sleeping condition.
Assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said that the rapper did not overdose, but died from ingesting Promethazine and Codeine, which is frequently mixed with flavored candy and mixed to make a drink known as “sizzurp.”
The concoction also took the lives of legendary Houston DJ, DJ Screw in 2000 and rapper Big Moe, who died of a heart attack in 2007.
Winter also said Pimp C. suffered from sleep apnea, a common sleeping disorder that blocks the air passages during sleep.
“Sleep apnea, you stop breathing,” Winter told The Houston Chronicle. “Coupled with a medication that suppresses your respiratory abilities, you end up with an accidental death.”
Pimp C, 33, was found dead in his Los Angeles hotel room on December 4, 2007.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the abuse of prescription cough medicine is on the rise, especially in young adults.
As many as one in every 14 high school seniors have said that they used cold medicine “fairly recently” to get high.
“It’s bad that kids are buying cough syrup and using it this way — it’s not good for them,” said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
UGK group member Bun B. will give his first performance since Pimp C’s death this Friday (February 8) at the Warehouse in Houston, Texas.