Actor Corey Haim died on Mar. 10, 2010 in Burbank. Police seized four pill bottles from his apartment (which he shared with his mother): hydrocodone (Vicodin), diazepam (Valium), muscle relaxant Soma and the anti-psychotic haloperidol (no brand name given).
Update: On May 4, the coroner said Haim's death was the result of respiratory distrees caused by pneumonia as well as an enlarged heart and narrowing blood vessels.
On The Larry King Show, Haim's longtime friend Corey Feldman stated: "People need to stop jumping the gun, stop saying it was a drug overdose... and wait for the coroner's report to come out. This could hav been a number of things. It could've been a kidney failure. It could've been a heart failure. It could've been a mixture of drugs. Or it also could've been, you know, your body shuts down after years of abuse."
Feldman added that Haim had started seeing a new treatment specialist in the last two weeks. "That specialist put him on a new line of medications," he noted. "Let's just say that they may not have corresponded with the medications he was currently taking."
Haim's agent Mark Heaslip told King that Haim had the flu and was "having trouble breathing late (Tuesday) night. He got up and was stumbling and fell straight to the floor. They called an ambulance but he had a cardiac before he actually (got to the hospital)."
Following news of Haim's death, California Attorney General Jerry Brown called it "yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of prescription-drug abuse. This problem is increasingly linked to criminal organizations, like the illegal and massive prescription-drug ring under investigation." Rushing to judgment, Brown, who's running for governor, has been proven wrong.
In a 2004 interview, Haim said, "I smoked my first joint (while) working on The Lost Boys." He was 16 at the time of the vampire film's release in 1987. SEE TRAILER BELOW
"I lived in L.A. in the '80s, which was not the best place to be," Haim continued. " I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack."
In rehab, he was prescribed drugs, kicking off a lifelong addiction.
"I started on the downers, which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck. But one led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day. The doctors could not believe I was taking that much. And that was just the Valium. I'm not talking about the other pills I went through."
Now friends are coming out of the woodwork discussing Haim's dependence on pharmaceuticals.
"It was always prescription drugs," says a friend. "He didn't drink, didn't do meth, not coke - prescription drugs, all the way. Tons of them."
"He was obsessed with Vicodin and pain killers," offers producer Nathan Folks. "When he came to my house, that was all he wanted. He worked really hard to overcome his addiction to illegal drugs and was very anti-drug and was in AA and NA for years which really saddens me. But it seemed like he turned to prescription drugs instead.”
I think it is disgusting how many people assumed Corey Haim died of an overdose without knowing the facts. His mother not only had been battling with cancer and lost her son, then she had to deal with nasty comments and untruths about her son who died.
I saw her on GMA (a clip is on YouTube). Get the facts before you continue to spread evil untruths about someone. What an awful thing to do when they have lost someone dear to them. So many people made up crap and hurt his mother and others close to Corey. They should get a public apology.
I saw her on GMA (a clip is on YouTube). Get the facts before you continue to spread evil untruths about someone. What an awful thing to do when they have lost someone dear to them. So many people made up crap and hurt his mother and others close to Corey. They should get a public apology.