Corey Haim Obtained 553 Pills in Weeks Before He Died

In a month leading up to his March 10 death, Corey Haim illegally obtained a massive amount of prescription drugs by "shopping doctors," using fraudulent prescriptions, an alias and giving several medical excuses, the California attorney general said in a press conference Tuesday.

In a 32-day period ending just five days before he collapsed in his mother's L.A. apartment, Haim possessed at least 149 tablets of Vicodin, 195 tablets of Valium, 15 tablets of Xanax and 194 tablets of Soma, according to Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr., who called Haim the poster child of prescription drug abuse.

Haim, 38, went to seven different doctors and seven different pharmacies to obtain the doses, Brown said. The actor also collected the drugs from emergency rooms and urgent care facilities.



The top state prosecutor's office had been investigating a prescription drug crime ring for the past nine months when a fraudulent prescription for OxyContin – that originated from a stolen doctor's pad – turned up in Haim's name.

Witnesses told investigators that Haim, who had multiple stints in rehab, had abused drugs since he was 15. In the months before he died, Haim "was preparing to do a media special on how easy it was for him to obtain pain medications," according to the attorney general's statement.


Haim Was "Very Convincing"
Haim's doctors told drug enforcement agents that the child actor was "very convincing" in his request for prescription meds. Although Haim's primary care physician confirmed to investigators that the actor was addicted to prescription meds, he also sought drugs from other doctors, telling them he suffered shoulder pain that occurred while filming a movie in Canada.

According to the attorney general's statement, Haim told doctors that he wasn't seeing any other physicians and stated he planned to have surgery. He also told certain doctors he had "depression issues."

On March 17, an arrest was made of a suspect tied to the drug ring, and Brown said Tuesday that more arrests were expected. No other celebrity names have turned up in the investigation thus far.

Although police mentioned an overdose as a possible cause of Haim's death, the official determination is pending toxicology results.

Haim was laid to rest in his hometown of Toronto on March 16.

Credit: PEOPLE Magazine

James Randi comes out

"How To Say It?
Swift
Written by James Randi
Sunday, 21 March 2010 12:37

Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted.

I’m gay.

From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style. At no time did I choose to adopt any protective coloration, though; my cultivation of an abundant beard was not at all a deception, but part of my costume as a conjuror.

Gradually, the general attitude that I’d perceived around me began to change, and presently I find that there has emerged a distinctly healthy acceptance of different social styles of living — except, of course, in cultures that live in constant and abject fear of divine retribution for infractions found in the various Holy Books… In another two decades, I’m confident that young people will find themselves in a vastly improved atmosphere of acceptance.


Before publishing this statement, I chose to privately notify a number of my closest friends and colleagues — none of whom, I’m sure, have been at all surprised at this “coming out.” I’m prepared to receive the inevitable barrage of jeers and insults from the “grubbies” out there who will jump to their keyboards in glee to notify others of their kind about this statement, which to them will be yet further proof of the perfidy of the rationalist mode of life that I have chosen. Those titters of joy will be unheard over the murmur of acceptance that I confidently expect from my friends.

This declaration of mine was prompted just last week by seeing an excellent film — starring Sean Penn — that told the story of politician Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. I’m in excellent company: Barney Frank, Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachel Maddow, are just a few of those who were in my thoughts as I pressed the key that placed this on Swift and before the whole world…

I should apologize for having used Swift as the venue to publish this note, an item that is hardly the focus of what we promote and publish here, but I chose the single most public asset I have to make this statement. It’s from here that I have attacked irrationality, stupidity, and irresponsibility, and it is my broadest platform. Here is where I have chosen to stand and fight.

And I think that I have already won this battle by simply publishing this statement.


SOURCE

WIKIPEDIA