Prince Death News Update: Was it Fentanyl The Drug that Killed him?

 Did Prince die of high drug dosage?

The frequently raised question has finally been answered by a medical report.

Fentanyl: A drug stronger and dangerous than Heroin 2:36. Did the powerful drug kill Prince?

A medical examiner's report Thursday said Prince - who was found dead April 21 in an elevator at his home studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota - died from fentanyl toxicity.

It's still not known whether the drug was taken by him or prescribed. If prescribed, why?

According to the autopsy report from the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office in Ramsey, Minnesota, gave no details apart from declaring that Prince, 57, died from an apparently self-administered dose of fentanyl.

But at the time of his death, Prince was being treated for opioid withdrawal, as well as anemia and a fatigue, according to a of NBC News.

"This was a man in his 50s who may have been struggling with pain and took a very potent opioid analgesic and died accidentally from an overdose," Barbarajean Magnani, pathologist-in-chief at Tufts University Medical Center of Boston, told NBC station KARE of Minneapolis on Thursday.

"Celebrities bring it to our attention, but we see this every day," Magnani said. "We have to re-examine the way we're treating pain."

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid - its chemical name is the tongue-twisting N-phenyl-N-[1-(2 phenylethyl)-4-piperidinyl] monohydrochloride - that was first formulated during the 1950s as a safer and more effective alternative to the painkillers morphine and meperidine.

According to research published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy, as little as a quarter-milligram of fentanyl can be fatal. To appreciate how tiny an amount that is, consider that a standard aspirin tablet is 325 milligrams - 1,300 times bigger.