Doctor: Grateful Dead Leader Was Fighting Heroin Addiction

Jerry Garcia was trying to kick a recurring heroin habit when he checked into a drug rehab center days before his death.

The leader of the Grateful Dead, who once called heroin “the perfect comfort drug,” had been in and out of treatment for the past month, said Dr. David Smith, who had helped treat Garcia for nearly three decades.

“He wanted to live. He recognized that his addictions were aggravating his medical condition,” Smith said. “That’s what makes this doubly painful.”

Garcia was found dead Wednesday at Serenity Knolls, a Marin County rehab center. He was 53.

Garcia entered the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about a month ago, Smith said, then had been “isolating himself at home.” But Smith said Garcia was more susceptible to using heroin at home, and entered Serenity Knolls this week.

Dennis McNally, the band’s publicist, said Garcia died of a heart attack.

However, the cause will not be confirmed until after toxicology test results, which could take two weeks, Marin County coroner’s investigator Gary Erickson said Thursday. The coroner’s early findings indicate that Garcia died from natural causes.

Smith of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, said those involved with Garcia’s treatment were hopeful because he had been showing signs that he was serious about battling his heroin addiction.

“I was going to take him to a recovery group tonight,” Smith said Thursday.

Plans for the band’s scheduled concerts in September remained in limbo Thursday.