Posted on 03/02/2011 12:07:40 PM PST by Pan_Yan
Florida is the epicenter of a prescription drug abuse epidemic. Each day in communities from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale, thousands of doses of powerful narcotics like oxycodone are dispensed in pain clinics — storefront operations also called "pill mills."
When he started at the Broward County Sheriff's department 30 years ago, Al Lamberti says, the department was raiding crack houses and busting junkies.
"Nowadays, the drug dealers are working out of strip malls," he says.
Lamberti heads the sheriff's office in a county that includes Fort Lauderdale. It's a city that has become a destination not just for spring breakers but also for addicts and drug traffickers.
"We have more pain clinics than [we have] McDonald's [restaurants]," he says. "They're taking their toll."
...
Doctors in Florida prescribe 10 times more oxycodone pills than every other state in the country combined. People come from all over the Southeast to visit the state's pain clinics.
Typically, doctors give them a quick exam and then a prescription for a powerful painkiller. Sometimes, they even fill the prescription on the premises.
...
It's a trip down Interstate 75 some now call the "oxy express."
"I have friends that are ER doctors along I-75," says Kentucky's Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, who is also a surgeon. "It's a daily basis where somebody goes into an ER off I-75 with an overdose."
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Mayo: How much oxycodone does Florida consume?
The DEA says Florida distributors bought nearly 40.8 million oxycodone doses for the first six months of 2010, while every other state combined accounted for 4.08 million doses.
The sad part is it only takes a few addicts to make it more difficult for people that really need the medicine to get help. That along with the quantity over quality medical system make it difficult to find a doctor that will really help people manage severe pain.
No,
It's the governor's fault
It's everybody's fault except he individuals paying millions of dollars to get high on this garbage.
Oh, but it the taxpayer's responsibilitiy to pick up the tab for their bad habits.
Well, Al, those strip malls are paying property taxes and the employees are paying income taxes to support your salary. What are you trying to do, drive away the economic activity that supports your paycheck?
(I’m not sure whether I’m being sarcastic or not, and that’s troubling.)
The gov is a Repub who is resisting enforcement, for some reason I don't understand or, more likely, the news orgs don't want me to know. And they mention that an NGO, unnamed, has raised the money to help with enforcement.
Why?
What "non profit" is trying to put this database into effect? Why is it not named?
I see progressives sneaky fingerprints all over this pretty interesting story.
I was in a pain clinic this am.
It was filled with people in pain. I’m sure most of them had built a tolerance, and were even addicted, but just looking at them made me hurt. One had a giant “chew” out of his arm, another could hardly walk and was on crutches. Another had a therapy dog and I could see the pain in her eyes.
I’m sorry for the people that have fallen into abuse, but pain meds make the lives of many people bearable. It’s sort of like guns - the crooks can find them, but the honest people are the ones penalized.
My physician has mentioned oxycodone for pain management, so far I am resisting. I currently take Vicodin 10-650 mg. tabs, four a day.
They are not doing the trick anymore.
That reminds me------Gosnell, the savage PA abortionist made almost $1.8 million each year on late-term abortions alone - and most of it was cash from desperate, poor women.
That figure does not account for any of the money he took in from allegedly selling illegal prescriptions to drug addicts in his community, including his notable distinction of being one of the top three prescribers of OxyContin in Pennsylvania, something federal authorities continue to investigate.
When investigators searched Gosnell's massive, three-story brick home at 32nd Street and Mantua Avenue, they discovered $240,000 in cash and a gun in a filing cabinet in his 12-year-old daughter's bedroom, according to the grand jury report. Aside from hiding their profits in their little girl's closet, Gosnell and his wife also invested in real estate. Together, they own as many as 17 properties, according to published reports; prosecutors said they know of at least seven. More at phillynews.com
Gosnell's killing chamber. The Women's Medical Society,
as of Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)
A raid on Gosnell's chamber of horrors turned up blood on the floor and parts of aborted fetuses displayed in jars. "People were practicing without a license. A non-licensed person was administering drugs. The conditions were horrific, uncleanly, just abysmal," a board spokeswoman told ABC News.
Prosecutors believe Gosnell's Philadelphia abortion clinic frequently delivered late-term babies alive. The Philadelphia abortionist then severed their spines with scissors. The fetal bodies, along with staff lunches were stored in refrigerators at the filthy Philadelphia facility. Tiny baby feet, prosecutors said, were discovered in specimen jars, lined up in a macabre collection. (Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
I was taking oxycodone when I herniated a disc last year. It shuts down your excretion system and turns on your depression system. It does it’s intended job but be careful with the side effects.
I was on those for a while after major back surgery years ago.
I hated them.
Every time I look into this subject I get sick to my stomach. Doctors are presribing these drugs at insane rates, and the people high on them are out there on the roads, going to work, living their lives stoned.
It’s really crazy. I had a friend tell me has asked for only a small amount form his doctor because he has severe back pain, and he was prescribed 200 pills! That’s a small amount? What’s a large amount?
Eventually, the fear of the pain overcomes the pain itself. That’s how people can take so many Oxy’s a day. They are trying to ward off the pain, not remove it.
Then, they're all for privacy and OTC Plan B abortifacients being sold to anyone including kids.
Possible side effect of Vicodin is also constipation but it has never happened to me.
Do you realize that you are already taking oxycodone?
Please tell us about the traffic accident rate of those on Rx pain relievers vs alcohol. Its infinitesimal yet you are not clamoring for alcohol prohibition are you?
Why do you care what other people put into their bodies? What business is it of yours? Do you propose more of the Nanny State to stop all this pain killer use?
Why is it that the totalitarian gene is so dominant?
Vicodin contain hydrocodone, not oxycodone. Oxycodone is a Schedule II narcotic, hydrocodone is Schedule III. The potency of oxycodone is 2-3 times that of hydrocodone.
not. please cite your source.
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