Vanguard | May 16, 2011 | 2 comments

'The OxyContin Express': Vanguard Update

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Two years after reporting the Peabody Award-winning Vanguard episode, "The OxyContin Express," correspondent Mariana van Zeller discusses the ongoing battle in Florida to regulate or limit sales of prescription pills, and the struggle for sobriety that one man she interviewed for the piece has faced in the time since.

In this season's premiere episode, van Zeller tracks OxyContin trafficking further up the east coast to Boston, where the high cost of black market pills has fueled a dramatic increase in addiction to cheaper heroin. "Gateway to Heroin" premieres Monday, June 20 at 9/8c on Current TV.

"Vanguard" is Current TV's no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.

For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.
  1. groups:
    Current Video,   Vanguard,   Vanguard Weekly Special,   Vanguard Special
  2. tags:
    Drugs,  Journalism,  Addiction,  Drug Trafficking,  4 more
  3. credits:
    VANGUARD Correspondent
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2 comments // 'The OxyContin Express': Vanguard Update // Video

  • wtf1760
    • 0
      wtf1760  

    • First let me say I enjoy your program,its very raw and candid which I enjoy.I watched your story about the eas at which patients can obtain oxycodone based pain relievers in FLA. It made for an interesting program that probably influences most of your viewers to say those pain clinics and their Dr.s need to be stopped.Im not one of them.I live in a state that early on in the southwest region helped coin the term "hillbilly heroin".I'm 41 yrs old and have been on opiate pain medicine for 6yrs. for chronic back pain.I wish I had options in my state that would make it easier to obtain the medicine I need ,the medicine that allows me to live an active normal life (working,playingw/my children,hunting ,fishing etc.)Unfortunately because of stories like yours,publicity,public outrage and others who sell or abuse their medication it is very difficult to obtain the medicine I need.Dr.'s are just to scared to prescribe ,increase doseages or strengths of medication and if its not made easier for them to feel comfortable prescribing opiates to people like me suffer for it.I'll end by saying unless you've experienced it you will never understand the intimidation,humiliation and anxiety you feel when your forced to ask for something that your Dr. should feel comfortable suggesting , like an increase in your strength or dosage . Your body gets used to an amount after a while and you dont get the same pain relief (your not high or stoned ) you dont feel the euphoric feeling like when you first began taking it but you still" thank god "enjoy the pain relief from opiates abbility to lessen the pain your body recognizes . People sometimes misuse their meds but people like myself should'nt suffer for that. Episodes of programs like yours unintentionally compound the problems and knee jerk reactions that contribute to my suffering,and people like me are labeled unofficially as a drug seeker.That may have well been the situation of the men you talked to from Kentucky and Tennessee.You've probably made it harder for people that are genuinely in pain to get the medicine they need.

    • 11 months ago
  • Dquixote1217

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