Beloved “Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher passed away at age 60 after suffering a heart attack on Friday, Dec. 23, People reported. The cause of cardiac arrest is unknown, but Fisher’s untimely death has raised questions on how prior drug abuse can affect heart health later in life. The star long fought addiction, and she wasn’t shy about discussing it.

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At the young age of 13, Fisher first started smoking marijuana. Then, beginning in the late 70s, she quickly became addicted to the era’s drug of choice: cocaine.

"We did cocaine on the set of [The] Empire [Strikes Back], in the ice planet," Fisher said in 2010, according to The Guardian. "I didn't even like coke that much. It was just a case of getting on whatever train I needed to take to get high."


The American Heart Association has published that the effects of cocaine can infiltrate the heart. Abusing the stimulant has been found to increases the heart’s demand for myocardial oxygen by raising heart rate and blood pressure.

Medical Daily previously reported that ingesting cocaine actually spikes a person’s heart rate while decreasing the “coronary heart flow due to adrenergic vasoconstriction of the vessels.” This means the organ is receiving less blood flow and oxygen in spite of the increased “physical workload,” which can also result in an enlarged heart.

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Cocaine isn’t the only drug that the star abused.

“I never could take alcohol. I always said I was allergic to alcohol, and that’s actually a definition to alcoholism — an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind. So I didn’t do other kinds of drugs until I was about 20,” Fisher told the Herald-Tribune in 2013. “Then, by the time I was 21 it was LSD. I didn’t love cocaine, but I wanted to feel any way other than the way I did, so I’d do anything.

Frequently reported effects of lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, include dilated pupils, increased heart rate and blood pressure, trembling, uncontrollable shaking, sweating, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite.

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