States Try to Curb Prescription Drug Abuse

50 Million Americans Abuse Painkillers and Other Prescription Drugs, An Epidemic Law Enforcement Is Struggling to Control

(CBS)  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.

[Anonymousforever]

Why is this not the PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES fault! What does a person do with no insurance that needs treatment? Remember! Their are people(like myself) that were told over and over again they had ADHD by their college, physian and therapist and adderall would be the miracle drug. I was practically forced on the drug! I tried reading anything i could find on the drug and why i shouldnt take it. I never found one bad article in the early 90's. I was tricked! I was not ever the type to take or abuse drugs, EVER . So, i thought the professionals were right... Well guess what? I dropped out of college and started taking more and more, and now i am a full fledged addict. Something, I never thought I would say in my life until now. NOW WHAT? Do I get thrown into jail for abusing the drug that i was told was a miracle drug or do I die from the abuse? PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES are to blame for murdering thousands of people and not to mention michael jackson. BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE NOT TOLD BY THEIR DOCTORS IN THE 90'S HOW ADDICTING THEY WERE OR THAT THEY WERE GOING TO BE TAKING METH OR HEROIN!! The PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES should pay for full long-term rehab!

[Meg003]

Those of us who battle cancer or must have surgery for other reasons are paying the price for the few who abuse prescription drugs. It is extremely difficult to get adequate pain relief for the days after major surgery. Yet I never abused drugs. After my last operation I lay in agony for two days because my doctor was too afraid of regulations to prescribe Vicodin, which works for me in very small doses.

[gold_standard]

Define abuse.

[timetrips1]

Jeez people get a life. Why should we bother being responsible for others stupidity! If you get yourself hooked, it should be up to you to seek treatment and get yourself unhooked. There are plenty of programs for that.

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!!!!!

[ScottyDog10]

timetrips1:
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

[hologram5]

Great, this causes issues for those of us with real chronic pain injuries. Makes it hard for us to get the help we need. Most with chronic pain go to the streets because we don't get enough from the doctor to cover the pain or when we have flare ups of pain. It drives you crazy. You can't think straight, cannot focus on anything. It puts you in a black hole and no matter how much counseling you get, it helps a little but not enough.

[NancyNAABT]

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[formrusmcsgt]

More than 50 million Americans have admitted to abusing prescription drugs.
---
And most would condemn one who would light up a joint.

Pure hypocrisy.

Likewise with all who live on XANAX, etc.

[smoknmirrors]

Nothing's pure. Not even Ivory soap. "Abusing" prescription drugs apparently casts a wide net, from those who are in substantial excruciating pain and seek immediate relief to those who seek a high to those who traffic in street distribution. It is much too broad a brush for meaningful discussion. To even infer that an illegal action with an illegal drug is somehow equivalent to the use of drugs prescribed by physicians for the purpose of relieving debilitating pain by a bonafide patient is the depth of absurdity. It is typical of a generation that has flattened all values and given weight to none. Tim O'Leary would be proud.

[TrickynWV]

Multisourcing is only a misdemeanor in my state, West Virginia. This past year,a Marshall University Cardiologist wrote over a $1,000,000 worth of narcotics in a little over a year, and only received probation by the WV Board of Medicine. The pharmacy that filled the prescriptions (about 1 every 45 seconds) got no punishment. Pharmacies have no incentive to help. Its all profit for them. And BIG PROFIT, I might add. Methadone clinics charge each drug addict about $13 cash a day for methadone (one of the most potent narcotics), and you can see that with 1000 to 2000 patients at an average clinic, there is no incentive for them to get any patients off of opioids. In fact, in West Virginia they can keep a patient on methadone forever, as there are no laws regulating a specific detox period. These "for profit" clinics are left alone by the state, mostly because of the nice tax revenue they generate. Get the picture? No one really wants to stop the opioid trade, because its BIG BUSINE$$.

[John_Merritt]

Well said Albert. I too have had periods in my life where I was reliant on scripts to get me through the day. Like any addiction it comes at a cost. But the greatest cost is to that of the family as a whole. Physicians that over prescribe do it for many reasons. Many had debilitating injuries themselves, and they know what it is like to suffer in pain. They also have to be able to work with a patient so the patient can be rehabilitated. Ortho's docs and surgeons know that rehab can't be accomplished if the patient suffers while they do it. If the patient needs to be treated with med's, I am just glad that doctors are sympathetic to the plight of the patient.

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'.

[albert571]

I was addicted to oxycontin/oxycodone for over seven years,I couldn't admit I had a problem untill I overdosed and nearly killed myself.My pain management doctor knew for at least the last four or five years that I was way over medicated(three 60mg oxycontin three 15 mg oxycodone per day)RX cost over$1000.00 a month street price would have been over $4500.00 a month!That's $54,000 a year times seven years thats $378,000!So it was hardly in my doctors best interest to take me off the drugs! I am clean today but it was not because my pain management doctor cared it was my grand daughter who cared enough to get me the help I needed in the end.She stayed by my side while I crawled the walls and went thru the worst three weeks of my life,if it were not for her I know I would be dead today!