States Try to Curb Prescription Drug Abuse
More than 50 million Americans have admitted to abusing prescription drugs. That's led 39 states to take steps to monitor prescription drug use - most recently Florida - as CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts reports.
Thirty-three-year-old Amy Hodgins took prescription painkillers after she hurt her back falling off a horse. She took more when she injured her shoulder in a car accident. She says that started her addiction to prescription drugs.
"You name it, I've done it," she said recently.
Hodgins says the pills took her mind off her pain.
"It got pretty bad," she said. "I was taking 30 a day."
She says she found doctors who would write her prescriptions. But when she couldn't, she turned to the streets, buying painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin for $20 a pill.
Police departments across the country are trying to slow street sales of such pills.
Members from the New Orleans narcotics team and the DEA recently conducted a pre-dawn raid, rounding up suspected "doctor shoppers." Officers accuse these suspects of going from doctor to doctor buying prescription pain killers like OxyContin and Xanax to abuse and or sell.
And nowhere is the problem more apparent than in Florida, where pain clinics flourish and the lack of a prescription drug monitoring program makes tracking prescriptions difficult.
"When the cocaine dealers are turning into pharmaceuticals dealers - that tells you how lucrative it is," said Capt. Karl Durr, head of the narcotic division of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Each year, nearly 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. That's more than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, ecstasy and inhalants combined. Florida's drug czar Bill Janes says addiction to prescription drugs is an epidemic.
"There's a perception that these drugs are not as harmful as illicit drugs because they are being prescribed," Janes said.
CBS News met Amy Hodgins when she checked into Novus Medical Center, a detox facility in New Port Richey, Fla.
Hodgins had a few ideas about when she reached her lowest point: "In Austin, when my parents had to come and kind of pick me up"; ""Not having a place to live"; "Ending a marriage was pretty bad."
Hodgins' detox from methadone was successful. She hopes to stay clean for good.
"This is a beginning for me. The end; it's over. That's my old life. It's like I'm reborn," Hodgins said.
Experts say recovering addicts like Amy are the lucky ones because they seek help before it's too late. But for most the lure of an easy high is irresistible -- keeping law enforcement one step behind still pounding on doors.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. Thirty-three-year-old Amy Hodgins took prescription painkillers after she hurt her back falling off a horse. She took more when she injured her shoulder in a car accident. She says that started her addiction to prescription drugs.
"You name it, I've done it," she said recently.
Hodgins says the pills took her mind off her pain.
"It got pretty bad," she said. "I was taking 30 a day."
She says she found doctors who would write her prescriptions. But when she couldn't, she turned to the streets, buying painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin for $20 a pill.
Police departments across the country are trying to slow street sales of such pills.
Members from the New Orleans narcotics team and the DEA recently conducted a pre-dawn raid, rounding up suspected "doctor shoppers." Officers accuse these suspects of going from doctor to doctor buying prescription pain killers like OxyContin and Xanax to abuse and or sell.
And nowhere is the problem more apparent than in Florida, where pain clinics flourish and the lack of a prescription drug monitoring program makes tracking prescriptions difficult.
"When the cocaine dealers are turning into pharmaceuticals dealers - that tells you how lucrative it is," said Capt. Karl Durr, head of the narcotic division of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Each year, nearly 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. That's more than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, ecstasy and inhalants combined. Florida's drug czar Bill Janes says addiction to prescription drugs is an epidemic.
"There's a perception that these drugs are not as harmful as illicit drugs because they are being prescribed," Janes said.
CBS News met Amy Hodgins when she checked into Novus Medical Center, a detox facility in New Port Richey, Fla.
Hodgins had a few ideas about when she reached her lowest point: "In Austin, when my parents had to come and kind of pick me up"; ""Not having a place to live"; "Ending a marriage was pretty bad."
Hodgins' detox from methadone was successful. She hopes to stay clean for good.
"This is a beginning for me. The end; it's over. That's my old life. It's like I'm reborn," Hodgins said.
Experts say recovering addicts like Amy are the lucky ones because they seek help before it's too late. But for most the lure of an easy high is irresistible -- keeping law enforcement one step behind still pounding on doors.
I'm so tired of the government telling me what I should and shouldn't do. Especially moral choices. Stay out of my business. If I want pain meds and can afford it I should be able to get pain meds! If I want cocaine and can afford it I should be able to buy cocaine!
The government can be in the business of helping keep me safe, make sure the drugs are pure, but stop trying to protect me from myself!!!!!
I could not agree more. Thanks to the Government's war on drugs, I am now required to take a **** test just to get my pain meds for my chronic pain. My Constitutional rights be damned with my fourth amendment rights now been shredded by the DEA and Federal Government with impunity.
The DEA has made it almost impossible for legitimate pain patients to get the pain medications they need because they prosecute doctors that write the opiod Rx's for pain relief.
The result is that most doctors will not even prescribe opiod pain meds any longer because of the fear of losing their medical license as well as going to prison just for treating the patient?s chronic pain. If a patient abuses the medication, the DEA does not go after the patient they go after the doctor even though he had nothing to do with the patient?s abuse. They get patients to testify(lie) against the doctor by threatening prison terms to the patents that abused the drug in the first place but if they testify against the doctor, nothing is done the drug abuser. This is nothing but police state tactics that extort patients into lying in court to prosecute innocent doctors.
You would have thought we would have learned from prohibition. Drugs were legal in America for 137 years with very few drug addicts. Now, Judges, politicians, police officers are corrupted by the money that the illegal drug trade produces and violence that was never involved in drug transactions results in illegal search warrants being issued and innocent people being shot in the middle of the night by SWAT teams with the wrong address on the warrant from confidential informants in the drug trade.
When are we going to allow the Liberty and Freedom this country was founded on to supplant the insanity caused by drug laws and the unconstitutional War on Drugs. Just imagine what will happen if we get Government run health care.
Your papers please comrades
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And most would condemn one who would light up a joint.
Pure hypocrisy.
Likewise with all who live on XANAX, etc.
When we get to the point where we become dysfunctional and dangerous to ourselves and others, physicians need to put their foot down. They are afraid to, at times, because of the fear of reprisal from patients themselves, their colleagues and lawyers. One recommendation: If physicans know they are dealing with a specific injury, there needs to be a 'contract' of sorts between the MD and the patient explaining "You, John Q. Public has this specific injury, which requires this amount of medication, over this period of time, and you will only be given this much unless it can be clinically warranted to adjust this amount. So use it sparingly because what you see is what you get."
In other words there needs to be clearcut rules comprised by Physicians, Pharmacologists and Associations creating a baseline and a threshhold for specific type injuries. Of course there are many variables like size, the profession of the patient, the age of patient, etc. But it is doable.
However, we as a society have become more reliant on anything that helps us get through the day. Some really do need medications. There is no denying it. Chronic pain is a bear to live with. But we as a society need to take more responsibility for our actions. That even denotes 'I am my brother's keeper'.
Until we all become more responsible from A to Z, then we will continue to have symptoms of the underlying disease process. In this case, ease and accessibility of 'feel goods'.