CA AG says Haim’s death linked to illegal prescription drug ring

Corey Haim’s death linked to massive illegal prescription drug ring: California Attorney General
Soraya Roberts
March 12, 2010
New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/03/12/2010-03-12_corey_haims_death_linked_to_massive_illegal_prescriptiondrug_ring_california_att.html
Corey Haim’s death has been linked to a massive illegal prescription drug ring, California’s Attorney General said Friday.

An unauthorized prescription in Haim’s name was found during a probe into prescription notepad fraud in San Diego, CNN reports.

California’s Attorney General, Jerry Brown, said the ring uses doctors’ identities to order prescription drug notepads from authorized vendors and then sells them to addicts and dealers.

“Corey Haim’s death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of prescription-drug abuse,” Brown said.

“This problem is increasingly linked to criminal organizations, like the illegal and massive prescription-drug ring under investigation.”

Brown added that many of the doctors whose identities were stolen were unaware that the fraud was taking place.

Haim, a former child star, died Wednesday at the age of 38 of a suspected drug overdose. At the time, the actor was staying with his mother, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, at her apartment in Los Angeles.

An initial autopsy conducted by the L.A. County Coroner revealed the actor had an enlarged heart, pulmonary congestion and water in his lungs at the time of death.

The coroner’s office is currently awaiting the results of a toxicology test, which could take up to six weeks.

According to CNN, Haim bypassed his primary-care doctor and picked up two drugs from a pharmacy 11 days before he died. Several prescription drugs were also found in Haim’s apartment after his death, possibly including Vicodin, Valium and Soma.

Corey Feldman and Marc Heaslip, Haim’s manager, say the actor was seeing an addiction specialist in the weeks prior to his death.

But Tiffany Shepis, the woman who was engaged to Haim last May, has said the actor was abusing Valium and Vicodin during their year together.

“You’re talking about a person that, at the time when I knew him, you know, was ingesting 40 some-odd pills a day,” she said on the HLN show “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell.”

Heaslip announced Thursday that Haim will be buried in his hometown of Toronto.

The actor rose to fame alongside Feldman in the 1980s with films like “Dream a Little Dream” and “Lost Boys.”