Look In Your Medicine Cabinet

How come these Pill mills prescribe Xanax as well as Oxy? That right there is a lethal combination. I understand they do it for the money but just curious why they rx these two together when clearly they are lethal when combined?

Suboxone most certainly is addictive! It is unlike Methadone in the fact that it does not leave you groggy. I have been on Sub for 6 years and It is very hard to come off of. The Withdrawl of Sub is very long up to a year! Let me tell you I wish I had never started on Suboxone, you are just trading one demom for the devil himself. I never tried Oxy, I was addicted to Vicodin after a few surgeries.

My brother just passed away on Sept. 29 from an overdose. It was hard cleaning out his room and finding hidden baggies of grayish powder, empty pill shells and RX bottles for oxycodone. I had no idea you could shoot up pills. The only reason I found out about this show is because he recorded and watched it the day before he died. Still in shock.

My mother and I were very interested in this episode, however you failed to mention a few things about the way Florida deals with it's patients. My mother and I moved to Florida from New Jersey a few years ago. She is disabled with 4 compressed vertebrae and RA in both of here knees. There are some days when she cannot even get out of bed. In NJ, she could go to her family doctor for the medication she needs, however when we moved here NONE of the doctors would prescribe her more than a weeks worth of meds at a time. The all said that they are not aloud to and the only way she could get a months worth was from a pain management clinic! So, our choices were either dragging her out of the house and paying doctors fees every week or go the the clinic! It really makes no sense for a person who REALLY needs these meds to have to go to places like this. We have seen MANY healthy, young people in the clinics that were obviously abusing the system. Many of them couldn't sit still, were very itchy and some actually had track marks! It's very disturbing and I don't understand why she can't just get what she needs from her family physician.

This program has not even mentioned NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS once.
The NA program has saved millions of lives!!!

I'm sorry for your loss and I agree that Todd will never recover without maintaining complete abstinence. Unfortunately your daughter will never get the chance to recover, but I think you guys are missing the big picture. I am more shocked and appalled that Florida has allowed these "clinics" to become the "grocery store" for addicts & dealers. The doctors as well as clinic owners & operators should be jailed, but I guess the law has to come into effect first. They do not accept insurance but eventually all of these addicts will be in government run programs that are paid for by taxpayers. Some of their families now receive public aid or even disability because they have "fried" their brains. To the sheriff in KY, could you go further up the chain-senators, congressmen, national news media-any body & everybody to bring attention? I can't even begin to imagine how your town has been turned upside down. Sadly, I'm sure yours is not the only one. Good luck to all those addicted, their relatives, and anyone involved with them. As a nurse who has seen plenty and a mother with an addict as an ex-husband, you've all got a tough & long road ahead. My biggest fear is for the children who are left & the emotional tally it will take on them. What are we headed for?

Thanks "Lenny". I am just shocked about this whole damn thing, and the lack of consideration for our family. I cannot believe that he would subject the family and my nieces and nephew to this. His Mother is so terrible to enable them...free house, free bills, and whatever else they wanted. And I know realistically that he did not force her to do these drugs, that she made her own choices, but for him to publicize my sisters death and claim he is some sort of victim is absolutely absurd. He claims to want to get better for his daughter but makes no real attempt at it. She NEEDS her father since her Mother is no longer with us. I miss her every single GOD damn day and its no fair that we were not warned before this broadcast-ed. I am in complete shock and utter disgust. I wish everyone knew how special Stephanie was. She was the most caring, lovable, sensitive, funny, and beautiful. Everyone who met her, instantly loved her. She really was a pure joy in this world and is severely missed. Next time Vanguard should focus on the people who have struggled to actually get clean, not just b.s. like Tod does. Or even the poor souls who actually have a legitimate reason to take these medicines. They can't even get what they need cause the drug addicts are making it so difficult. This world is F*D

It's too bad Todd can't see the REAL picture.

I know him, he was in my family and I know for a fact that he is still using marijuana & alcohol (and who knows what else);
Seboxin is a drug that is used to help detox off the opiates;
To be used a week TOPS!!!
To continually use seboxin is just as bad as using Methadon.

He will not ever recover as long as he does not maintain COMPLETE abstinence.

Todd has caused untold people much pain; including getting his wife (my daughter) hooked on that stuff and as a result overdosing and dying.

To portray him as a person trying to do something about his addiction is blasphemous and a lie.

This is a result of Todd's mom Maureen, enabling him in his addiction.
While he was on the opiates in his active addiction his mom would pay his rent, bought him a car and just let him run himself & my daughter to the ground.
And she knew about addiction since her other son previously died from the same thing---no excuse!!!

My daughter has left behind 3 children (one from Todd).
What are these children to tink when they get older?
Do they google Todd's name and get this sham of an interview?

He has NOT taken ANY responsibility for his daughter, who is a beautiful 3 year old; he visits her several times a month while on his seboxin 'mummy' like state. I witnessed it. What a shame.

Todd told me 3 months ago that he does not get into any NA/AA meetings, he doesn't like them, he lies when he gets there (he does not tell them he is on marijuana/alcohol/seboxin), and is trying to do it 'his way'.

It is really a shame that this station would choose to run his story when there are MANY, THOUSANDS of recovering addicts that are leading clean productive lives for many years---and then PAY him for this warped story at that.
He probably used the money to get MORE drugs!!

You guys should find a REAL recovering addict that has made it all the way back from the depths, instead of a guy you have to pay money, who has not made a decision to do so yet.

im posting this comment for the staff and management at current tv. this is concerning the vanguard episode dealing with oxycontin abuse. my girlfriend and i were just watching the episode when< no more then 5 min into the show, she realized that the episode was documenting, in detail, the events surrounding her deceased sisters untimely death as told by her sisters scumbag, waste of life, parasite of an ex husband. my girlfriend and her family had no idea that this was going to be featured on this episode. the man in the episode named tod parkinson and his mother are actually making money off her death. they even went on the 'Dr. Oz' show. i can not believe that vanguard is allowing those two to appear like the victims in this whole thing. tod was the main reason that stephanie became addicted to this horrible drug and ultimately caused her death by allowing her to take an excessive amount of the narcotic and then let her slip into a coma which led to her breathing stopping and ultimately her heart. im very disheartened that current tv and the staff of vanguard did not do a better job of doing their homework and getting the real story. TOD IS NOT A VICTIM. HE IS AN ENABLER.

I have to agree with Chopman001, why don't you do a story about the people out there in severe chronic pains that really needs pain medicine just to be able to take care of themselves everyday.
Include in the story how hard it is for these people to get the medicine they NEED because of the addicts. The way the current laws are set up, it is not addicts the law is preventing from getting the medicine, it is the people who legitimately need the medicine. Addicts know how to 'work the system' to get pain pills while the regular person in chronic pain does not.
According to an unofficial survey almost 85% of chronic pain patients have done something that can be considered 'drug seeking behavior' just to get some relief from the pain.
Unfortunately the chronic pain patients are the ones who get caught and labeled addicts, making it even harder for them to get pain medicine
And one of the biggest things you should do a story about is how people in chronic pain and regularly (and legitimately) on narcotic pain medicine can not get adequate medical care for other ailments. When a person in chronic pain and on pain medicine goes into the emergency room (for something unrelated to the cause of their chronic pain), as soon as the doctor knows about the narcotic pain medicine the person is on then that is all that doctor cares about. It is like the doctor will see nothing else. A lot of the time the doctor will insist that the problem that brought the patient to the ER is caused by the pain medicine (no matter what). Most of the time however the doctor will believe that the sole reason the patient is there is to get narcotic pain medicine (I guess forgetting the fact that chronic pain patients ALREADY HAVE narcotic pain medicine). Also a lot of ER doctors only want to tell the patient how 'concerned' they are about the narcotic pain medicine the patient is on. That ER doctor does not really know that patient or even the reason why a pain specialist put the patient on the narcotic pain medicine (actually I think that they could care less about why). They just climb up on a high horse and judge the patient.

Current,
Your Oxy story is nothing new. People have been espousing the evil attributes of opiates for many years before you. Yes there will always be abusers.

How about doing story about the many people that legitimately need pain management to operate in their daily life?

If you want be real journalistic heroes, why not be the news organization that reveals medication just as effective as opiates without the addictive, harmful side effects. It is being researched, are you covering it?

Use your minds. Chase the real stories that improve Humanity.

If all you are going to do is "report news", be sure and report ALL sides of it.