Roseanne Barr Just Used the ‘Ambien Defense.’ So Have Accused Murderers and Drunk Drivers

Roseanne Barr had an explanation in the aftermath of sending a racist tweet that led to the cancellation of her sitcom, Roseanne: Ambien made me do it. “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting,” Barr wrote in a now-deleted tweet, adding in a separate post that she was “Not giving excuses for what I did (tweeted) but I’ve done weird stuff while on ambien.” Roseanne is definitely not off Twitter despite her statement yesterday that she was leaving it. And her “Ambien tweeting” line has users describing every odd (non-racist) thing they’ve done while on the sleep drug. @therealroseanne pic.twitter.com/VAEbSxYYbc — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 30, 2018 Barr’s explanation prompted Sanofi, the maker of Ambien, to indirectly condemn Barr’s claim on Twitter. But the controversial comedian is far from the only person to blame erratic (or illegal) behavior on the sleep aid. Ambien, a brand name for the drug zolpidem, can sometimes cause “sedation, and what we might call delirium, but it’s not getting you fully to sleep,” explains Dr. John Winkelman, chief of the sleep disorders clinical research program at Massachusetts General Hospital. “People seem to do things that they would ordinarily do” — such as eating, going to the bathroom or walking around — “but they’re in an altered state.” Winkelman likens the effect to that of intoxicati...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Uncategorized Drugs healthytime onetime Source Type: news