Recovering Addict Explains Doctor Shopping
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, are doctors feeding addiction? Authorities investigating Corey Haim`s death are demanding records from 20 different doctors. Investigators say the actor got thousands of pills under the names of these 20 doctors in just the last year. That dovetails with what Corey`s former fiancee told me just days after the actor`s death.</s>TIFFANY SHEPIS, FORMER FIANCEE OF COREY HAIM: At the time when I knew him, you know, was ingesting 40-some-odd pills a day.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: How many?</s>SHEPIS: Forty, 50.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Forty, 50 Vicodin, Valium?</s>SHEPIS: All of them combined. The specialist would prescribe absurd things. And I`m going, "Well, how is this helping you get off of this?"</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: The autopsy found Corey had pneumonia and an enlarged heart when he died March 10, but until the toxicology results are back, we don`t know exactly what role drugs may have played in his death. But Corey had a long struggle with drug abuse. So how in the world does somebody get their hands on so many prescription drugs? Well, tonight, my special guest -- we will call her Nikki, not her real name -- she is a recovering prescription pill addict. We are showing her in shadow to protect her identity. Nikki, you doctor shopped and also illegally sold prescription drugs. How many doctors did you have? How spread out were they? And how did you get them all to give you all these pills?</s>NIKKI, RECOVERING PRESCRIPTION PILL ADDICT: Yes. I went to about four different doctors at a time. After having multiple spinal surgeries, I used to keep my records with me. I would go to the doctor and I would say, "You know, I want to get a doctor closer to home" or I wanted to get a doctor closer to work or I thought the city would be better. I had two doctors in the city, one in the suburbs and one in another borough. But most of the time I would say to them, "You know, I`ve been on very strong medication for a very long time, and I want to wean off of some of it." So I would tell them exactly what milligram I wanted to come down to. And to have it covered by insurance, as long as the strength and milligrams was different, you could get as many prescriptions as you want for that month. So I could have four different prescriptions for OxyContin, as long as the strength was different.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is absolutely mind-boggling. Now, we`re hearing the ex-fiancee say, you know, Corey Haim took 40, 50 pills. How many pills were you taking at the height of this?</s>NIKKI: I was probably taking about that many. And mine were more OxyContin than anything else. Everything else was just more of a chaser. The OxyContin is what really had me to my knees. And it -- it took about three years for the insurance companies to find me. But I was able to get away with it for that long.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why do you think you were -- why didn`t the doctors pick up on it? That`s what everybody wonders.</s>NIKKI: Well, you know, I had a valid injury. And to tell you the truth, I quote unquote, don`t look like a drug addict. You know, we`re very good actors when we want what we want. And it was very easy to -- you know, these were fine doctors. These were not doctors that were doling out pills. These were well-respected hospitals and doctors. And addicts are just really good liars. We`re very good at getting what we want to get and what we need.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. This is an astounding story. And is it very common? We only have a few seconds left.</s>NIKKI: It`s more common than anybody knows, because you know what? Nobody can afford to buy that kind of medication. You can`t afford to buy it. And the insurance company cost me $1 a prescription, $3 a prescription for 150 pills. So times that by four.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Got to go. Wow. Thank you, Nikki, not your real name, for being so honest.</s>NIKKI: Thank you, Jane.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Horrifying teen violence rips through Florida. Another teen set on fire. You don`t believe it, next.