Ex-wife Debbie Rowe says Doctors Competed to Give Michael Jackson Painkillers

CNN.com:

Two German doctors treated Michael Jackson's insomnia with propofol 12 years before he died from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic, his former wife testified Wednesday.

Debbie Rowe, who is the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, is being forced to testify about the singer's drug use by lawyers for AEG Live, the concert promoter being sued by members of Jackson's family, who say the promoter is responsible for his death.

Doctors "would try to outbid" each other on who could give Michael Jackson "the better drug" for his pain, Rowe testified Wednesday.

Jackson family matriarch Katherine Jackson sat Wednesday morning in the front row of the small courtroom, where she has spent much of the past 16 weeks watching the trial.

Dr. Allen Metzger -- Jackson's general practitioner in the United States -- arranged for the German anesthesiologists to infuse the singer with propofol in a Munich hotel in July 1997 after sedatives failed to help him sleep between concerts, Rowe testified.

"I think they tried it and it hadn't worked and if he couldn't sleep, he couldn't perform," she testified. Jackson "was at the end of his rope; he didn't know what else to do."