The OxyContin Express

Way to go Broward County; I have lived in Florida since I was 13 years old; Broward County specifically since I was 14; and I wish I could say this episode surprised me. This pill pandemic has been going on here for years and years; what is surprising is that this is the first honest look at the problem! Christ sakes! Cops started in Broward County and now we have Police Women of Broward County & it took Current to give a fresh perspective on a problem that is and has been pervasive in Broward; its beyond a joke how easy illicit and prescription drugs are to get here; I don't know anyone who hasn't been negatively affected by the pervasiveness of the drug culture here. It's a sad state literally I live in; but I do want to say thanks to Current for shining a light on the truth; hopefully people will wake up and see that change needs to happen be it through new laws; or simple a change of heart; I do believe change can start with a conversation. Kudos to y'all!!

An example of a corporation making a poison, designed with highly addictive properties, making $millions$ feeding this epidemic while victims of their product die, go to prison and battle horrific addiction.

Absolutely fantastic and eye-opening episode of Vanguard. One more piece of evidence for why you guys get and present on some of the most fascinating stories out there. Have already watched the episode twice, can't wait for the next one.

It's crazy to think that this issue gets so little play on the mainstream news networks when it is so pervasive. I hope lots of people see this and start investigating the issue further.

There needs to be a national registry where your name and information gets entered into a database when the doctor prescribes the med/narcotic and also when you get it filled at the pharmacy. It should only allow a person to obtain so many pills in a month. These pig doctor's that are recklessly prescribing these narcs need to be arrested and their licenses revoked. The DEA should start rewarding these addicts and/or dealers for giving up the crooked doctor's information, but I'm sure it would be hard for the addicts to give up their poison and the dealers their $$$$.

Not everyone becomes an addict from pain meds. I had surgery 8 weeks ago and thank goodness for Percocet. It helped me with the pain and I did not become addicted. Aside from the true addicts, I think that people think that their lives will be pain free and so many people think they need a narcotic these days for pain. What ever happened to using ice packs or a heating pad? How about aromatherapy or topical analgesics like Icy Hot? Tylenol and Advil actually work quite well for some. Society has done this to themselves. Everyone wants a quick fix for everything.

I feel terrible for the losses of the people in the video. We need a paradigm shift in this country BAD!!

South Florida you're a MESS!!

wow this was an amazing piece.Living in PA i don't really see this epidemic unfolding.We smoke sticky green:-)..I don't know how those "doctors" sleep knowing that they kill so many people.My mother in law is a Doctor and i see how easy it is for her to get pills when she wants.The distribution system is broken.This plague "should" play a major role in healthcare reform...but of course we all know by now that the real addiction is Money.I wonder how long our society in general will keep beatin around the bush.Money is the source of all "crime" except for the serial killers and rapist.Its time we start working on a solution.So far a resourced based economy has been the best proposal i've seen.I hope i make it to that future:-)

amazing documentary. How come Florida close eyes to ths terrible addiction. Is there any laws?
Super work Mariana. I do hope that this docummentary will open the mind and the eyes of everyone in Florida.
You are a fantastic journalist

I've never realized just how big this problem is. Media in and around Vancouver and Canada in general either revolves around the issue of marijuana (and the legalization debates) or illict drugs and guns being smuggled in by gangs and really hasnt had any significant focus on the issue of abuse of prescription drugs at all, perhaps just because the numbers are lower here. I can't believe that doctors would sink that low and just become legal drug dealers. It saddens me that ethics have gone out the window and the oath is clearly no longer in force.

This documentary has really given me new insight into the world of medicine and it's dark side. Another fantastic piece by the Vanguard team. Thank you for all that you do.

Iam from Lawerance county ohio.And now live in Scoito county.Its right across from greenup.My brother is hooked on oxys.He lives in Lawerance County ohio.He goes to Fla every week to get pills for the creeps in Lawerance county.I called the Lawerance county shirff. I told him when also the time my the car the lic of the car my brother and another goon was leaving for a pill run.nothing every happened.They say the Judge in Lawerance county along with others are in on the runs.I believe it.greenups Shirff Cooper is the only shirff in the tri state that does anything about the oxy problem here.

Wow! This was very interesting and insightful! I love how it was captured, through the eyes of the people who were addicted too such an easy drug-addiction and yet the same people who were ashamed and lost loved ones because of what they were doing while talking about their close loved ones while doing the easy drug-addictions that cost them their loved ones.
It really showed how people were so selfish and just want to give up on everything.
It really shows how pathetic people are, willing to travel to a different state to spend about $700.00 on prescription drugs that are killing them and they're families.
This really needs to stop. They're the ones responsible for law changes, and more punishment on the rest of the Country. I think something drastic needs to happen that can't happen by little laws and regulations but by the people, the people that don't deserve to be responsible for our tax dollars to build you more jail cells, the younger generation to be apart of the aftershock to either clean up or fuse the pandemic of selfishness, our decisions to create and build rehab facilities (that don't work), when we can be using our time and creativity to produce art, music and technology.
Nothing seems or has to be fair anymore. We're giving in to easy, these are people who need attention so bad they have to kill themselves to get it, and we're giving them everything we got.
This needs to stop.

-kayla moon

Awesome show! Finally a true documentation on the legal drugging of our youth. As a detective in Florida I have seen so many deaths and so many ruined lives. I hope the show pushes the powers to be to change things, wishful but foolish thinking.

Great show, Thank You for speaking the truth

Thank You so much for doing a show on this subject.
Our son has had a problem with this for a very long time. We have done so much to help him, that we have very little left. I have called and gone to the places that he has been and told these places to not treat my son again because he does have a problem and that if he dies from all the drugs they have been giving him I will take them all to court. Right a way they tell me that I have nothing to worry about that they will no longer take care him, but then he just finds another place and another Pharmacy, so it is like fighting a very losing battle. One because he feels that he is in so much pain that he must have all the drugs to just get by I would love to get a group together and talk to people to see if we can get something done or we will lose more and more of our children and young adults. Thank You
Please respond

This is so sad. I'm a recovering addict- lucky enough to make it almost 5 years away from this shit now. But it is really evil. The powerlessness is insane. I hope the people in this vid and everyone else suffering from this shite gets a chance at changing. Not many people do but I really hope they do.

Powerful documentary.

This is the first and hopefully not the last documentary about the problem our society has to deal with everyday...Prescription drug abuse especially oxcycodone. My grandson, Ryan, died June 29, 2009 from an ovewrdose of Oxycontin that most likely travelled to him from these pseudo Physicians and pharmicists in Florida. Ryan was 22 yers old and was intrduced to this <KILLER drug by his best friend. He was very naive and within 3 weeks after his first dose he was dead. Thank you so much for exposing this problem to the world.
Jane D. Greenup County, KY

Great peice of work current. But I think we need to open up more pain clinics it helps speed up the process a bit. Boosting the econemy through small business and it helps to get rid of all the pill chasers! (they die ;) More work for the willing! Get off your asses you fucking losers! Great work current, now just to get down to Florida.......

Prescription abuse is so wide spread now, I see it everywhere. Even in my remote area of canada, we have pain clinics and corrupt doctors handing out pills to anyone. People are dying while doctors are getting rich. This is one of the many crimes against humainty that has become the norm of our lives, and our generation.

I was shocked, I live in north west Florida and it's not quite the same scenario. I know a least one person who has a hard time getting the medication she needs. And has struggled for years seeking adequate treatment for her degenerative condition. Not addiction actual permanent spinal injury. Still I think people needed to see how serious opiate addiction can be.

That main character, with the wife who died and him still sleeping in the same bed strung out..... All I could say was DAMN. Just watching him and listening to him, it was like wow okay that's hell. I couldn't imagine what that's got to be like other than what he expressed, and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

I pick on Current a little bit, but it's the Vanguard series and the way they go into stories like no one else that keeps me watching.

It's sad that we live in a world where people need to see things like this, unfortunately we do. Hopefully this show and the others like it will wake some people up before it's to late...

I cannot believe people would make a trip from Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virgina just so that they can get their hands on OxyContin. I hope whatever Florida is going to pass for monitoring the drug will pass... Good story.

Initially I was going to send this t a person on the board, but I decided it would be better to share this.

I feel compelled to respond on this, and perhaps my screen name gives you an idea as to why. I am 45 yrs old, 2 of my 5 children are still at home I have 2 in different colleges, and one who is a physical therapist. I have always had upper back problems from an injury in my early 20s. I have 3 herniated thoracic discs, that all impinge on the spinal cord, but they arent the story.

In late 2005 i felt like someone had shot me in my left kidney, and I couldnt move my left leg. I thought maybe its a kink or something, Id never had low back pain. An Mri detected a lemon sized spinal tumor at L2. It is benign, but 4 Neurosurgeons, a Vascular surgeon and a General surgeon, with the majority of these docs being at Mayo Clinic concluded that surgery would leave me in worse shape than I was already in.

My left leg is 60% paralyzed, but it feels searing lightning bolts of pain really well. I also have epilepsy, and thus the combination of disorders has left me totally disabled. I cannot drive a car, lift anything over 2 pounds (that still sounds ridiculous to this day) Sold my motorcycle, golf clubs, fishing equipment...everything I did for enjoyment is no longer available to me.

Because of the snail-slow pace of Social Security Disability, we lost our home, cars and a boat while awaiting the decision, luckily having my parents, who had a farm we could move a mobile home we bought for $1,500 on (you can imagine how nice it was) My wife was our only income, she brought home $1,100 a month. with then 4 kids at home, you can imagine how our life was. I wont even go into insurance company battles.

We finally prevailed, and I now receive disability and medicare, so though not wealthy, were gonna make it!

Now....pain. For around 4 years now, I have been taking hi powered pain medicines. Physical therapy doesnt help the tumor, and the last attempt at it further burst one of my bad disks. Now my physical therapy consists of hot showers in a chair, and stretching to keep the muscles from knotting.

I see the world mostly from my hospital bed. I can walk short distances with a cane, but i have a powerchair for anything more than 50 feet. I cannot do whirlpool or hydrotherapy of any kind for risk of a seizure, so I really do not have an outcome, only treatment.

I dont like taking any pills at all, never did. I monitor and control this stuff like you would never know. Last winter my weight shot up to 260 lbs...I am 6'3" I had to start taking blood pressure and heart medicine and my doc said, youre going to need more or different heart meds unless you lose 40 lbs. Without exercise, all I have to control it with are calories. Today I weigh 170lbs, got rid of 2 medications, and this weight is easier on arthritic bone spurs in my knees and ankles (thats seemed trivial to mention in comparison). I also stopped smoking 6 months ago...still staying at 170 :)

OK. People that abuse these high powered medicines are pitied, and despised at the same time by those of us in support groups for Chronic Pain. It is not simple at all to get that kind of script here. The doc I go to, Ive known since I was 13. Still we work as a careful team. It took us awhile to find a combination of meds that made me comfortable enough to have some semblence of a life.

I dont despise these people personally, but they do make people that actually have legitimate need of such meds lives much more difficult. There are many with legitimate conditions, but there are probably 3 to 5 times that amount of fakes and seekers as we call them. Oxycontin can turn a legitimate patient into an addict for a simple reason. It is supposed to be a time released medicine that lasts for 12 hours. In reality, it lasts about 8 hours, so unless a person is strong willed, they go to the bottle when the pain spikes....contunued....

I am from KY and I have written my congressman and other state reps. What else can we do? Thank you, Marianna!

Doctors and pharmaceutical reps are LEGALIZED drug pushers. Citizens are criminalized while those profiting are sitting pretty. What the *%$*# is going on in the U.S. ?!

cont from above... Usually a patient is given an immediate release med for breakthrough pain or spikes. These too can lead a person into feeding the pain rather than fighting it. I feel that combination is exceptionally bad. As many may know if a person simply swallows an oxycontin (contin for continual release) it really doesnt have a "euphoric high." Abusers defeat this by chewing them, crushing and snorting, Id never heard of smoking before and of course some dissolve them and shoot them.

I take 2 long acting medications rather than a supposed long acting med and a breakthrough pill. We have found that to be a successful combination for the type of pain I have, though oddly enough, it does nothing to migraines, so Aspirin is part of the arsenal.

Ive not had the desire to take more than is prescribed. In fact, since you are supposed to refill when you are under a week's supply, I have a backlog. I save them until out of date in case of some freak thing like my doc moving, dying...etc. After the date, I do not flush them...because I worry about that kind of stuff going into a water treatment plant, it may be fine, but I dont risk that, I return them to the Pharmacy for disposal.

One part of the documentary made me sad in a different way than many of you can relate to. In the beginning of my regimen, and anytime the dose goes up due to tolerance... I will have about 3 days where I can be sitting up on my bed, and sleep in the same drooped over posture like the guy spoke of finding his wife dead in. That kinda gave me chills, but again, I have a strong support system, so we all have a part to play in keeping it safe.

The last thing I wish to address is the difference between addiction and dependency. Even some docs dont delineate the two, or really understand it. Here's my best explanation. Addiction means you are using it for reasons other than your condition, and using it more and more to get high, and "seeking" several doctors, although here the computerized network stops that. Addiction is also what is experienced with tobacco.

Dependency happens to everyone on Opiate/Opioid treatment. After having taken these meds long enough, your body no longer produces the amount of natural endorphins, because the brain believes it is being taken care of, so if you suddenly stop, you get sick like I pray none of you ever do. Its only happened to me once, and that was due to leaving my shaving bag on the table at home when we left for a 500 mile trip to my folks. The emergency room staff talked to me as if I were a felon. I understand their reluctance believe me, the seekers have so damaged actual CP patients, it makes you want t cry.

We had planned on a 2 week visit, but when the withdrawals came, it was like looking into the mouth of hell, plus the pain, without endorphins, was dramatically higher than before. My wife and I actually ended up having to leave the kids at my Mom's and fly back home to get my medicines. Thi was after my doctor had faxed all of my info to the doctors down here and everything, but they still wouldnt budge, they were kind enough to give me about 5 sleeping pills so I wouldnt be getting quite so sick on the plane ride. I ended up with 3 days of withdrawals, and again, Id not wish that on anyone. So that is dependency. Not what I or anyone with a brain would choose, but its my only option, and Ive been through every option before a crusader out there tells me their magic cure. Ive had cortisone injections into the epidural canal of the spine that did nothing, though its like a miracle for my ankles. Ive been the whole route, and Im at the best quality of life Ive had since this all began.

continued just once more :)

ok last part...

I also want to say there's one more thing to consider. When this first began, the first doc I saw wanted to put me on Vioxx, just weeks before it was banned, I asked him to refer to the family history area of my chart, and got up and left. Every male ancestor on my Mother's side died in their early 60s of Heart Disease or Stroke. Opiates DO have to be taken with great respect, however, they are one of the world's oldest drugs, which means we know all of the long and short term side effects. Obviously florida is just plug stupid to not have control on that. Cant get a Cuban Cigar, but heres enough lab-made heroin to end your life and ruin your family.

But in the long run, with my conditions, opiates are the most effective, and handled responsibly, one of the safest. I say safest considering how pills are rushed to market now, we all end up being their long-term trial cases, until a few people die, then they pull them. To date my side effects on my medicine are, constipation, and the same effect with urination, due to muscles governing those necessities being relaxed. Usually senna,and a cup of decaf keeps that in good shape. I dont get the drowsiness anymore, until the dose has to increase again, probably 1-2 years from now, and I forget what Im talking about as Im talking, and in the beginning it also made my nose itch like crazy...... but that is about it. Ideal living? Hell No, but its better than not living.

Something on the other side of the coin is, due to not being able to get adequate treatment or relief, many Chronic Pain patients commit suicide. Since I began my online support group 3 years ago, 8 of our group have died that way. Some even take their lives when they are getting treatment, just because the thought of living, in some cases 40 or more years with all those issues is untenable for them. I take a day at a time when it comes to happiness, and I thank God I have a wonderful and strong family, and terrific friends that make my existence Very much worth living. This cold weather is hard on me, but I find if I poke fun at myself about all this, it also helps me keep perspective about what the true treasures of life are.

If you are respectful, I will be glad to answer any questions. I will not respond to rudeness, judgmental posts or someone with a miracle cure involving magnets, copper or anything ridiculous.

Hoping my post finds everyone here well

-d

i knew this episode was going to be all about florida.

Why don't these cops bust into the pharmacies and doctors' office? What the hell does attacking the addicts do? 7 years in jail doesn't stop drug problems! Criminalizing this shit won't change anything- creating help for people will. These people are sick, not criminal.

Vanguard never disappoints. This is an issue that has been completely ignored by the mainstream media, and I have Current to thank for raising my awareness yet again. Your efforts are greatly appreciated, and I hope the Vanguard team receives the recognition they deserve from the journalism community for doing an absolutely fantastic job with each and every episode. May you continue to bring the microphones to these too-often overlooked, silent stories from around the world for years to come! Thank you!

As usual Mariana van Zeller and Vanguard deliver another powerful, insightful perspective on our world. This story has relevance beyond Florida and its "hillbilly" clientele. Mariana van Zeller always seems fearless in her pursuits and I believe this is the essence of her journalistic prowess. After watching "The OxyContin Express" it's apparent that van Zeller leaves no stone unturned and truly represents all sides of the story. Something I haven't seen on any other network.