Haim got a hold of hundreds of pills before his death

Actor Corey Haim employed "doctor shopping" to obtain 553 prescription pills in the two months before his death, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said yesterday.

Haim obtained the meds, which included Valium, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma, through seven different doctors and seven pharmacies, Brown said, and he used an alias on at least one occasion, The Associated Press reports.

Brown said it did not appear the doctors knew Haim was obtaining prescriptions through multiple sources. He said in addition to the prescriptions investigators verified Haim filled this year, thousands of pills were obtained in Haim's name.

He called Haim - the star of 1980s films such as "The Lost Boys" and "License to Drive" - a "poster child" for prescription drug abuse. He said it wasn't just celebrities who were obtaining massive quantities of prescription drugs through doctor-shopping.

"We think it illustrates a problem that is more widespread," Brown said. His office has pursued more than 200 cases statewide involving prescription abuse by both doctors and patients.

Haim's activities described by Brown yesterday are separate from a fraudulently obtained prescription Haim may have obtained. That prescription for OxyContin was found during an investigation into a ring that illegally obtained prescription pads and used the stolen identities of doctors to fill them out.

Haim, 38, died March 10 after collapsing in his mother's apartment. Haim struggled with drugs throughout his life. He was also suffering from flulike symptoms before his death and his official cause of death has not been released.

Mark Heaslip, the actor's agent, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment yesterday.