Boston // Current TV

CBS Faked Boston’s 4th of July Fireworks Show

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Exit strategy more important for startups than a business plan?

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"Oxycontin Express" rolls into Boston

In 2009, I filed a report called "The OxyContin Express," detailing the rampant over-prescription of opioids by many Florida doctors and the impact that this was having, not only in Florida, but also Appalachia and the tri-state area. We saw users from Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio all journeying to Florida painclinics, attracted by promises of lax regulations. In Florida, doctors prescribe Oxy at five times the national average.
This year, I travelled to Massachusetts to investigate a heroin epidemic that has Boston, and its suburbs, in its grip. I was not surprised to find painkillers, specifically OxyContin, once again at the heart of the problem.
Talking to Boston natives in the trenches of addiction and to the dealers that serve them, I realized that what might have started out as a small-time hustle has evolved into a large-scale operation, a corporation of sorts, with connections reaching back to a familiar place—Florida.
Prescription pills have become as much a part of the street dealing landscape as cocaine or crack. OxyContin pills have traveled all the way up the Eastern coastline, and by the time they make it to Boston, one pill can be sold for as much as $80. A bad Oxy habit can cost up to $800 a day. This is a habit often too expensive for young users to maintain, and in most cases it isn’t long until they develop a cheaper, yet more lethal addiction to heroin.
It was so devastating to see how a person’s life could be so quickly derailed, simply by getting prescribed a painkiller after an injury. People who never would have envisioned putting a needle in their arm just a year ago are now full-blown heroin addicts. It’s an addiction that crept up on many in Boston. Those who abuse pills often times think that they are different than your average heroin addict on the street and feel invulnerable to a possible heroin addiction. But as Rebecca, a heroin addict herself, so grimly told us, "I always say to my friends, keep doing this for a bit longer and you’re going to be a heroin addict." Most don’t listen.
Officials in Massachusetts recognize that the painkiller problem is no longer one with a localized solution. Drowning in a sea of prescription pills and unwilling to resign themselves to the role of damage control they, along with officials from other states affected by the lack of regulation in Florida, have increasingly vocalized their frustrations. In the meantime however, behind the doors of suburban middle-class Boston, a new heroin epidemic is ravaging a community, and creating addicts on every block.
"Gateway to Heroin," the follow-up report to the award-winning "The OxyContin Express," premieres on Monday, June 20 at 9/8c on Current TV.
Watch a trailer here or below:

In 2009, I filed a report called "The OxyContin Express," detailing... more