Unconfirmed reports from the news site TMZ indicated that Prince was treated for an overdose of the painkiller Percocet after the emergency landing. His jet took off again a few hours later.

Doctors typically prescribe Percocet for severe pain, said Dr. Damon Raskin, the chief medical advisor at the drug rehabilitation center Cliffside Malibu. It’s considered a high-risk drug, and doctors cannot call a prescription into a pharmacy, but rather must write a prescription on paper or electronically transmit it using a secure system.

“Percocet is in the same family as heroin and codeine,” Raskin said. “It’s as dangerous as any opiate if someone is not used to it or if they take too much.”

The most common cause of death in an opiate overdose is that the user stops breathing, Raskin said, at which point doctors would administer a reversal agent called Narcan.

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