You claimed that his drug use was solely due to his hips, which even he said is not true. But I'm the one who is out of my league?
I did NOT say that the hip problem led to ALL of his drug problems.
I would not make a mistake of saying that he took cocaine to dull his pain. I wouldn't make an elementary mistake like that. I've published in medical and scientific journals on several, but not all, of these drugs.
Throughout this entire thread you've taken off on posters, just trying to be a jerk.
Clearly the guy had issues with a number of drugs; that's not unusual. He was addicted, at a minimum, to cocaine, pain killers, and nicotine. I read an interview many years ago where he talked about how the hip problem led to his abuse of pain killers. Was he already addicted to cocaine in 1972? I don't know.
And, finally, you're assertion that Derek was a superstar is patently absurb. Were you even around when Derek played? I was and saw Derek play. He was a third-line center, ace penalty killer, and disturber. He was a valuable member of the Bs Cup winning teams, but he never anything more than a star.