Cocaine, Heart Disease Played Part in Whitney Houston's Death

Article updated at 5:50 p.m.

Cocaine use and heart disease contributed to the , who drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel, according to autopsy results released today.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office ruled the 48-year-old singer's death an accident, with no signs of trauma or foul play.

Houston was found Feb. 11 at the , where she was expected to attend Clive Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her autopsy was conducted Feb. 12.

According to the autopsy report, cocaine and metabolites were found in Houston's system and contributed to her death. Atherosclerotic heart disease was also found to be a contributing factor.

Marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl and other drugs were also found in her system but did not contribute to her death, according to the coroner's office.

Patricia Houston, the singer's sister-in-law and manager, issued a statement saying, "We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure."

Craig Harvey of the coroner's office said Houston had a "moderate" amount of cocaine in her system, but the autopsy results suggested "chronic usage" of the drug.

"We feel that the cocaine coupled with the atherosclerotic heart disease complicated her condition, as such, so that if she did have, for instance, a cardiac event, all of that combined to result in her drowning," Harvey said. "Chances are had she not had the pre-existing heart disease and cocaine use she may not have drowned."

Harvey said chronic usage "creates problems down the road" health-wise.

"If you have one condition and you're also using cocaine, you can then exacerbate that other condition," he said. "The cocaine causes the heart to beat faster, the arteries to constrict, which could create a problem and set you up for a cardiac event."

Though the autopsy was performed the day after she died, toxicology testing generally takes several weeks. Assistant Coroner Chief Ed Winter said precise descriptions of the amounts of toxins found in her body will be available in the final report, which is expected to be completed in about two weeks.

Houston had a well-publicized history of substance-abuse trouble. She and then-husband Bobby Brown were arrested at a Hawaii airport with marijuana in 2000.

In a 2002 interview by Diane Sawyer, Houston was frank about her drug use.

"First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap," she said. "I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let's get that straight. OK? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack is whack."

The article appeared on Beverly Hills Patch.