Pain PIll Abuse

[url=http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/02/11/cb.prescrip.drug.abuse.cnn ]http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/02/11/cb.prescrip.drug.abuse.cnn [/url]

Here is a link to an incredible CNN video about the abouse of pain medications. I finally understand what "abuse" is all about.

The video looks at Florida. In Ft Lauderdale the local rag you find in "free boxes" has 14 pages of ads for pain clinics. 14 effing pages of ads - MANY on each page.

They showed lines to get in the clinics with security guards patrolling the parking lot. Most of the license plates were from out of state - Tennesse, Virginia, Kentucky - the I-75 corridor.

People paid $350 to $450 to see a doctor for 3 minutes of less and walk out with fists full of prescriptions to fill at the in-house pharmacy! Hundreds of Xanax, Roxiecodone and otehr narcotic pain medications. Amazing. On Florida streets, 1 pill sells for $2 to $3 dollars. But in Kentucky and Tennessee, ONE PILL sells for $20.00 to $120.00.

Young kids swallow (13 to 14 years old). Older folks crush the pills and snort or melt the pill in water and inject. Simply amazing. A fascinating CNN report.

Glad I live in California Again. [url=http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/02/11/cb.prescrip.drug.abuse.cnn ]Pain Medication Abuse[/url]

I saw a similiar expose. It was absolutely mind boggling. Grannies were going in and getting them and then selling them to dealers.

Charlotte

Unfortunately it happens here all the time. My upstairs neighbors (thank god they defaulted on their rent and got evicted after a lonnnng fight) sold oxycontins. They sold them for a lot of money, however I don't know how much per pill because I was never interested in buying. He used to crush and snort them. I had heard a lot of banging coming from them and asked one day if it could stop and he told me, "Oh, okay. I'll crush up the pills on the living room table instead of the kitchen where there's carpet."

Nice, right?

My husband used to buy vicodins recreationally when he was in high school. Thank goodness he kicked that habit long before I met him! He says when he brought them ONE 7.5 vicodin would go for $5. That's half my copay. Geez. I don't know how much the price has changed over the years but even still up or down a dollar, it is still pretty expensive. What a shame.

When I was prescribed Embeda, an extended release morphine pill, I looked into it since my copay alone would be $70 for 30 pills and it was such a hard prescription to get. Apparently the reason for that is because it contains Naltrexone which is a special narcotic drug that blocks the effects of other narcotic medicines and alcohol. The Naltrexone only combines with the morphine if chewed, crushed or tampered with and will negate the pleasurable effects of the drug, therefore deterring abusers from breaking the extended release to get high.

Apparently this is the only pill out on the market as of yet however many pharmacutical companies are trying to make similiar type drugs that will be "untamperable". They want to do that with Vicodins and Oxycontins but the trials have not yet gotten FDA approval. I believe one pill had gel insides which was impossible to snort. I found it very interesting, and I wonder how it will turn out once they get approval.

I hope they make them all untamperable. That is some crazy stuff.

Over the holidays, my mom and I were Christmas shopping at Target, and stopped to get a drink in the cafe. I was hungry, so we ordered some chicken strips to share, and sat down to eat them. This young mom, with a stroller and a toddler, was behind us, talking to a couple of other young people, in a normal-to-loud tone of voice (you could basically hear them anywhere you sat in the cafe, and the worker behind the counter could hear them, too) about having just filled a script for vicodin and how much she was going to be able to sell it for per pill, and where and when she could sell the pills, etc. etc. It was appalling. My mom and I were both shocked and disgusted, not just that this mom was discussing selling pills in front of her child, but that she felt perfectly fine doing so in a very public setting, where everyone could hear, completely confident that there would be no repercussions from doing so.

BTW, this is in CA. I think the price she was talking about was $10 a pill for vicodin. Is that crazy or what?

But what I want to know is, how can these pain clinics in Florida be legal? And how can they get away with charging people so much for about 5 minutes of consult to get pain meds? If this is legal, why isn't it common in other states? Why only Florida? Crazy. I was in Florida on vacation a few years ago, I never heard of this. How insane is that?

And we wonder why some doctors are hesitant to give RX's for our medications, which most on here legitimately need to be able to survive. I am lucky that I rarely need to take narcotics stronger than Darvocet and triptans work great, but I feel for the people on here who need to get rid of the pain, because those underground pain clinics, along with all the RX abuse (especially associated with celebrity deaths) and the "street pharmacists" selling the ill-gotten meds REALLY do us a disservice.

It infuriates me to read stories like this. People in TRUE pain have to struggle to get them & sometimes get the side-eye from pharmacists.. all because of this group of abusers. I find it appalling.

I've seen news stories done on these clinics.

It's so obvious what's going on so why aren't they shut down and prosecuted?

I have also seen several stories done on the elderly selling their pain meds.

Something needs to be done about all this.

Instead of making it hard on the legitimate pain patients.

Cindy

It amazes me also that the FDA has the nerve to prosecute a real pain physicaion here or there around the USA when this situation exists in Southern Florida. My Thom is from the West Palm Beach - Ft Lauderdale area of Florida. When I mentioned this expose to him he described seeing exactly what they showed in the expose ... it is an open secret. What a farce! Makes me furious when I read of people on here in real pain who cannot get adequate relief and treatment. Just furious!

Richard,

It is disgusting that legitimate doctors and pain specialists have to worry about the DEA when something so obvious is going on.

What is this world coming to??

Aren't there people within the DEA that have any wisdom whatsoever?

This is something the Obama administration should address.

Wish I knew of a way to make that happen.

Cindy

And I can't even get my nuero to write a script for darvicet or vicodin...

Unfortunately, there are places like this in Dallas too. I've mentioned before but my Aunt was seeing 4 different "pain doctors" and getting oxycotin and hydrocodone and the injectible morphine..she was filling all the prescriptions at the SAME WALGREENS! And no one caught it!

In FEB. 12, 2006 she took the majority of a bottle of 180 hydrocodone she'd been prescribed 2 days earlier by a "pain doctor" and killed herself.

Stories like the one you posted make me so angry....because I don't believe my Aunt suffered in pain as much as depression.

I suffer excrutiating migraine pain and can't get any narcotic to take the edge off because it seems doctors are afraid to prescribe them afraid of the habitual user.

It's so frustrating!