LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles city officials are preparing for massive crowds downtown during Tuesday’s public memorial for Michael Jackson at Staples Center, even though only 17,500 tickets are being offered to the public.

Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger says anywhere from 250,000 to 700,000 people may try to reach the arena, even though a wide area around Staples Center will be sealed off to those without tickets.

As this developed, the powerful sedative Diprivan was found in Jackson’s home, a law enforcement official said.

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Diprivan is an anesthetic widely used in operating rooms to induce unconsciousness. Also known as Propofol, it’s given intravenously and is very unusual to have in a private home.

As of yesterday, more than 524,330 people had registered for tickets to the memorial, said a statement from Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine.

AEG, the company which operates the Staples Center, also changed the registration rules to allow non-US residents to register for the drawing, the statement said.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry strongly urged people to stay home and watch the memorial on TV. The ceremony will not be shown on Staples’ giant outdoor TV screen and there will be no funeral procession through the city.

But public safety officials appeared to assume their requests to stay home would have little effect. Since Jackson’s death, fans have flocked to Jackson sites from Los Angeles to his Neverland Ranch in rural Santa Barbara County.

Staples Center is offering the memorial tickets through an Internet lottery. Eleven thousand tickets are for the arena and 6,500 for the adjacent Nokia Theatre.

People who want tickets must register on the Web at Staplescenter.com. After 6 p.m. Saturday, 8,750 names will be randomly selected to receive two tickets each. Notifications will go out on Sunday.

Costs

After the ticketing details were announced on television, it became impossible to log on to the arena’s site.

No details were given about the actual memorial events.

The memorial comes as the nation’s second-largest city struggles with a $530-million budget deficit.

Perry said the cost of police protection for “extraordinary” events like the memorial is built into the police department’s budget, but she still solicited help for “incremental costs.”

Last month, donations covered about $850,000 of the city’s $1-million cost for the Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA championship parade.

Critics had blasted the idea of using city money when it is considering layoffs to close its budget gap.

Sedative

A Los Angeles Police spokesman, Lt. John Romero, declined to discuss the discovery of the sedative in Jackson’s home. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said.

The cause of Jackson’s death has not been determined. Autopsy results are not expected for several weeks.

Jackson was known to have suffered from severe insomnia. In the weeks before his death, Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who was working with the singer, said Jackson pleaded for Diprivan amid the stress of preparing for a massive series of comeback concerts.

Lee said she repeatedly rejected his demands because the drug was unsafe.

Told Friday that Diprivan had been found at Jackson’s house, she said, “I did everything I could to warn him against it.”

Jackson had trouble sleeping as far back as 1989, said one of his former publicists, Rob Goldstone, who spent a month on the road with Jackson during the “Bad” tour.

“He had very bad nightmares, he found it very difficult to sleep,” Goldstone said.

Heart

Diprivan, which has a milky appearance, is sometimes nicknamed “milk of amnesia.” Last fall, doctors from the Mayo Clinic warned at a conference that in rare cases, Diprivan can trigger an irreversible chain of events leading to heart dysfunction and death.

The drug’s manufacturer, AstraZeneca PLC, warns that patients using Diprivan should be continuously monitored, and in a tiny number of cases, patients using it have suffered cardiac arrest, although it was not clear the drug was to blame.

Authorities are investigating allegations that the 50-year-old Jackson had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants.

Any criminal charges would depend on whether Jackson had been overly prescribed medications, given drugs inappropriate for his needs, or if doctors knowingly prescribed Jackson medications under an assumed name. (AP)