Doctor Linked To Anna Nicole Investigated

(CBS/AP)  The state medical board said Thursday that it is investigating a California doctor who may have prescribed methadone to Anna Nicole Smith through a prescription that contained an alias.

The Medical Board of California began looking at Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after receiving information about possible misconduct, board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said. Cohen declined to give details on the allegation or its source but said it was connected to Smith.

Smith, who was living in the Bahamas, died Feb. 8 in Florida at age 39. The cause is under investigation.

Among other things, the board is investigating whether it is legal to prescribe drugs for someone using an alias, Cohen said. She described the review as routine and said the board is obligated to review all allegations of physician misconduct.

The celebrity news Web site TMZ this week published what appeared to be a 2006 pharmacy receipt for a methadone prescription written by a "Dr. Kapoor, S." to a "Chase, Michelle." TMZ said Smith used the name as an alias.

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A woman who answered the telephone at a listing for Kapoor in Los Angeles hung up when The Associated Press called Thursday.

Methadone is similar to morphine and is widely used to treat severe pain; it is also used to treat heroin addiction.

But taken the wrong way, methadone can be deadly. It has not yet been determined what drugs — if any — were in Anna Nicole Smith's body when she died, but in her Bahamas refrigerator, next to the SlimFast, there was methadone, according to authorities.

It's unclear whether Smith ever used it, but her son Daniel apparently did. According to a medical examiner hired by the family, a combination of methadone and antidepressants killed him. Experts say he's one of a growing number of young people who've lost their lives to the drug.

"Methadone may be the most underrated problem in drug abuse in the country today," Kay Sanford, a methadone expert at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, told The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith.

The California Health and Safety Code, which governs public health, includes several sections stating that no person who prescribes or dispenses a controlled substance may give a phony name or address or make any false statements in the prescription form.