Howard K. Stern Anna Nicole’s Drug Lord

What do you make of Howard K. Stern’s recent arrest and new label of Anna Nicole’s “principal enabler” in connection with her drug overdose death?  I think it’s right on the money.  Prosecutors maintain that Stern conspired with two doctors to provide Smith with thousands of prescription pills in the months before she died of an overdose.  Stern denies it.  I think he thinks because he did it out of love for her that he didn’t do anything wrong.  I’m sure she was begging him for pain killers in the days after her son’s death and Stern just wanted to do anything to make her feel better.  No excuse, but I’m sure that’s how he rationalized it.

That guy did always seem really sketchy, so it’s not surprising that he was Anna Nicole’s enabler. Such a sad situation, feeding her addiction that eventually led to her death. That guy must have a lot of guilt over the whole situation - or maybe he is in denial?

Likely he wanted to continue his free ride with Anna (or maybe it was love?) and kept her happy so he could continue to be her companion.

All I can say is it’s about time. It was obvious that he had to be enabling her. I saw a video of Anna high as a kite with clown face paint on ET once. Howard was taking the video and was heard saying it was going to be worth a lot of money. Sad that this woman was exploited by someone who was supposed to be taking care of her. Of course, she’s not blameless for the turn her life took, but I think Howard clearly wasn’t trying to get her any help for her addictions.

Kelly, I saw the same video. Howard K. Stern was the man behind the camera. When I saw it I thought, “Why didn’t he get her help.” She was so out of it I would have been afraid she could have died of an overdose right then. Her life and death were tragic. The whole story. He was a contributor to her demise and I for one and happy to see that he may have to pay for what he did.

Donna

Hi Donna,

Yes, it was really reckless. Just think of how he would have exploited that baby if he had won custody of her? It gives me the shivers. Howard was living with Anna, so there’s no way he could have missed the huge collection of drugs that would have made a normal person suspicious there was a problem going on. I’ve heard that his name is on a number of the prescriptions, and there’s speculation that he procured those drugs for Anna’s use. Heck, maybe he used them too, but I never saw footage of him as high as Anna.

Truthfully, I don’t think he really ever cared about Anna Nichol except as his “cash cow”. I don’t think he ever intended for her to die, but that is beside the point. Many people who abuse drugs think that somehow they are above the negative side effects. You know, they’re just having fun. But once they are hooked it’s hard to turn back. The fact that her son Daniel died so young, and the fact that Anna Nichol was still doing drugs with her infant daughter in her life shows clearly that Anna needed help. And what help did she get? A man who fed her all the drugs she wanted while making money off her. I think it would be great if he had to pay in some way for his part in her death.

Donna

Howard and a lot of other people made (or stand to make) a lot of money off of Anna Nicole. She wanted to be important—it is too bad her importance to so many people was just based on what she could give them.

Honestly, it’s difficult to believe that anyone in Anna Nicole’s life cared for her aside from her son, who also tragically died. Her mother is a train wreck and her so-called “family” is a hot mess. While the whole custody battle thing was going on for her daughter, at first, I thought Larry Birkhead was a gold digger, but my, my how things quickly changed. I think that he’s done a pretty decent job of keeping their daughter out of the spotlight and moving on with their lives. As far as Stern is concerned, he always seemed like he had a Svengali complex in the way he always controlled Anna Nicole.

You can only hope that perhaps some young women out there might learn from this, but for the most part I don’t think that will happen. People who seek to find their purpose and importance in their looks and popularity are often blind to the fact that people are using them for their own gain…whether it is monetary gain or something else. I hope her little girl grows up with more self worth and the cycle will be broken.

Donna

Part of me believes that Howard actually loved Anna Nicole (in his own strange way).  I get the feeling that Howard is insecure by nature and knew he could never attract someone like Anna Nicole.  She said herself that she got lonely one night and Howard was around so they ended up sleeping together.  I’m sure that made Howard even more crazy in love with her and he tried to make sure that she needed him in one way or another for life… hence the drugs.

I think at one time I believed that Howard really loved Anna as well, but when you love someone, especially someone who was so clearly an addict, you don’t ply them with drugs. The more I read about this continually unfolding story, the more I believe that the man has some serious psychopathic issues. It really is all so sad, but at least her daughter is no longer caught in the middle of this. Can you imagine if Stern got custody of her as opposed to Larry Birkhead? Especially right now? It seems that Birkhead tries to live a relatively quiet life with his daughter, though he does do the occasional interview and whatnot.

I agree that Howard’s definition of “love” is warped, but I also think he got in way over his head.  Anna Nicole was Howard’s first brush with fame and I think he got sucked into the abyss of celebrity and all that comes with it.  I don’t condone anything he has done.  Heck, I never liked the guy.  The entire situation is very sad and it just shows the power of drugs.  In this case it took a mother and a son.

It is sad, and it happens to families throughout our entire social structure. I don’t think Howard got sucked in, I think he looked at Anna Nicole as his cash cow. She was his main source of income. If she was straight he might have lost that when she could think rationally. I guess we can only speculate though, and base our opinions on what we’ve seen in the media, and that is not always the ideal place to learn the facts.

Donna

It’s sad really, the negative contribution Howard K. Stern is leaving to Anna Nicole Smith’s legacy for her daughter. Someday, she’s going to read all this stuff and be totally mortified. And I agree that Stern, although his actions were deplorable, never wanted Anna to die, but then again, he didn’t seem as though he wanted her to get well either because all he ever did was ply her with more drugs while taking advantage of her drug induced state. Yes, I agree that it seems as though Stern looked at Anna as his own personal bank account.

But how much did Howard really make off of Anna Nicole?  During the inquest his financial history was released and I don’t remember him having a ton of money.  I know he was living off of her, but he certainly didn’t sock away a bunch for future use.  I don’t know what his ultimate plan was, but he sure didn’t succeed.  I remember that shortly after Anna Nicole’s death, Howard went public saying that he was broke and he was living off his parents.  I think he was more into it for the fame than the fortune.  Either way I’m sure he won’t face much jail time if convicted.  Now he’s more infamous than famous—c’est la vie!

I think this is very sad, but as many others have posted, it was expected.  I too saw the video of Anna and her clown face makeup while she was drugged out.  I have no idea how Howard could feel good contributing to that disillusioned mental state.  Pretty messed up.  I also had nothing but sympathy for her after her son passed.  Perhaps she is finally at peace.  Kudos to Larry Birkhead for taking care of their daughter and avoiding the press.  I think he really loved her.