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The amount of a short-acting anaesthetic reportedly found in Michael Jackson’s body is not lethal, experts say.

Jackson’s personal doctor Conrad Murray told police he had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol nightly for six weeks, according to court documents. But Murray said he was trying to wean Jackson off the anaesthetic in a three-hour interview with police two days after Jackson’s death on June 25.

Murray said he gave the sedatives lorazepam, intravenously, and midazolam to Jackson before finally caving in to the singer’s demands and giving him 25 milligrams of propofol together with the local anaesthetic lidocaine.

Doctors say the dosages of 25, and even 50, milligrams of propofol are far below the therapeutic level needed to put someone to sleep – and keep them there.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said John Dombrowski, a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. “I cannot believe that was the number that was given. Such a small amount won’t tip anyone over in terms of respiratory depression,” he said.

Dombrowski said the numbers in the documents are somehow in error. Murray might not have provided an infusion rate, such as 25 milligrams every few minutes, or police might not have understood the medical terminology, Dombrowski said.

Scott Engwall, vice-chairman of anesthesiology at UC Irvine School of Medicine, said that for an average person without a high tolerance to drugs, 50 milligrams of propofol might be enough to make them doze off for five or 10 minutes. But one of the features of the short-acting anaesthetic is that patients pop awake after a time interval.

Source: Splash News