DEA to help police investigate Jackson's death

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With the federal Drug Enforcement Administration now joining the investigation into Michael Jackson's death, Jermaine Jackson says he would be "hurt" if toxicology reports show that his younger brother abused prescription drugs.

"In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to," Jermaine Jackson said in an interview broadcast Thursday on NBC's "Today" show.

The circumstances surrounding Jackson's death last week have become a federal issue, with the DEA asked to help police take a look at the pop star's doctors and possible drug use. Allegations have emerged that the 50-year-old entertainer had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants.

Asked if he would be shocked or surprised if Michael's drug use was proven, Jermaine Jackson said, "I would be hurt." He said he had heard about prescription drug use in the 1980s when his brother was hurt in an accident filming a commercial but did not know if drug use was a possibility more recently.

"I don't know about these things, because I hate anything with drugs," he said, adding that it hurts the family for people to say things about drug use "because we don't know."

Psychic entertainer Uri Geller, a former Jackson confidant, said Thursday he tried to keep Jackson from abusing painkillers and other prescription drugs, but others in the singer's circle kept him supplied.

"When Michael asked for something, he got it. This was the great tragedy," Geller said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his suburban London home.

Jermaine Jackson said he would like Neverland Ranch to be his brother's final resting place. A person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP that permits for a burial at Neverland could not be arranged in time.

Jackson said in the "Today" interview that he wishes he had died instead of his younger brother, and that Michael was "a gift from Allah."

"He went too soon," he said. "I don't know how people are going to take this, but I wish it was me."

When asked why he felt that way, he said that he always felt that he was Michael's backbone.

He said it was a friend who told him last week that his brother had been rushed to the hospital. He called his mother, Katherine, who told him that Michael was dead.