Los Angeles - A doctor who treated Michael Jackson during a 1993 concert tour that had to be cancelled when the singer entered rehab testified on Monday about the signs that led him to conclude the singer had a problem with prescription pain medications at the time.
In video taped testimony, Dr Stuart Finkelstein said he was later asked by concert promoter AEG Live to act as Jackson's personal physician during the ill-fated This Is It tour in 2009 but wanted to know if Jackson was "clean".
AEG executive Paul Gongaware said he didn't believe Jackson had any prescription drug issues, Finkelstein testified.
Finkelstein's testimony was recorded during a February deposition that was played for jurors hearing a negligence lawsuit by Jackson's mother against AEG Live LLC.
Katherine Jackson claims AEG failed to properly investigate another doctor who later gave her son an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol and that the company ignored warning signs about her son's health.
Finkelstein said he first suspected Jackson had a dependence on pain medications in 1993 while working on the Dangerous tour. He recounted spending 24 hours in the singer's hotel suite and administering morphine intravenously to deal with Jackson's pain.
He said he gave Jackson morphine during their first meeting because the singer's buttocks were scarred from previous unspecified treatments and he was concerned about giving an injection of the painkiller Demerol.
He said he also noticed that Jackson appeared to have a high tolerance for morphine and had on a patch that administered another opiate drug.
Finkelstein said he gave Jackson one other painkiller treatment before the Dangerous tour was halted after what he described as an intervention by Elizabeth Taylor and others in Mexico City.
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