The eulogies for pop superstar Whitney Houston have been delivered and she was laid to rest Sunday near her late father. The round-the-clock coverage of the 48-year-old singer following her Feb. 11 death will subside.

But Houston’s passing has already sparked widespread discussion on the dangers of mixing prescription pills, especially mixing medications with alcohol. Bottles of prescription pills were found inside Houston’s hotel room and are said to have included the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, the antibiotic amoxicillin for an upper respiratory infection, and the pain medication Ibuprofen. She was drinking champagne in the days leading up to her death, including at a pre-Grammy party in which she was photographed looking disheveled.

Official results from toxicology tests on Houston’s body are expected to take a month or more to release.

Whatever the report states, the message that emerged is clear: mixing drugs and alcohol can be deadly.

Rising deaths

Nationwide, one person dies every 19 minutes of prescription drug overdoses, which works out to about 27,000 annually, a rate that now outnumbers deaths involving cocaine and heroin combined, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s an increase from 2008, when one or more prescription drugs were responsible for about 20,000 deaths. That year, opiate pain relievers like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet accounted for 14,800 deaths, an almost fourfold increase from 1999.

About half of the prescription painkiller deaths involved at least one other drug, including anti-anxiety drugs such as the popular Xanax and Alprazolam. Cocaine, heroin and alcohol also figure in the mix.

For instance, the stimulant cocaine, which raises blood pressure and can lead to stroke, heart attack and artery damage, often is chased with a Xanax tablet, a depressant, after a night of partying to come down from the high to coax sleep. Alcohol, also a depressant, is another popular counter to the jittery effect of coke.

“Someone who abuses cocaine and brings themselves down with the use of alcohol or Xanax have this additive effect of two depressants on the brain center that makes us breathe. You go into a coma and stop breathing and die,” warns Dr. Ihsan Salloum, director of the alcohol and drug abuse treatment program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

In 2010, more than 12 million Americans aged 12 and older used prescription drugs — whether prescribed directly or obtained via someone else’s prescription — for nonmedical reasons to attain a high many of these drugs can cause, not unlike cocaine. Sales of prescription drugs have tripled from 2000 to 2009, leading to the higher death rates. An average of seven people die every day in Florida as a result of prescription drug abuse, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent, attributes the number of deaths to a perception that legal drugs are safe and the increased availability of prescribed medications.

“One is a perception issue. The perception is if you are prescribed medication given by a doctor, while it might not be a great idea to misuse it, it’s not going to kill you. Doctors say, ‘Don’t drink if you are taking this medication’ and it seems a courtesy warning. Whereas, a warning that a person dies every 19 minutes would be a stronger warning,” Gupta said in a telephone interview .