tagged w/ Prescription Pills
-
-
The highway from percocet to heroin.
Hardly anyone starts getting high with the intention of becoming a full-blown heroin addict. The chicken-versus-egg approach of blaming marijuana as “the gateway drug” could ramble on forever, as could defining alcohol and nicotine as “drugs”. http://wp.me/p1RkpB-1The highway from percocet to heroin.
Hardly anyone starts getting high with the... more
-
-
This time last year, we were deep into production on "The OxyContin Express," the Vanguard documentary about prescription drug abuse and the pain clinics in South Florida that have become the source of a black market trade in pills.
While reporting, we came across one pain clinic whose reputation surpassed all others. Law enforcement in Kentucky and West Virginia had drawers full of seized pill bottles with its name and address. Prisoners and addicts from Florida to Appalachia spoke of the ease with which this clinic handed out large doses of Oxycodone and Xanax.
It was this reputation that led us to try and film the Palm Beach clinic, American Pain. If you’ve seen the piece, you know that led us to be chased by goons in luxury cars down I-95.
Long story short: Everyone knew about this place. Everyone, it turns out, including the DEA.
Last month, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, along with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, raided three pain clinics in Florida, including the clinic we were chased away from.
The Feds are working on a case against the clinic’s owners, twin brothers who the Miami Herald earlier reported have criminal records and no medical training.
Here are a few highlights from the civil forfeiture complaint that spells out the evidence prosecutors have gathered thus far:
A doctor at American Pain told an undercover agent how that clinic alone saw around 250 people/day from South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky.
American Pain obtained over 2 million pills of Oxycontin in 2009.This figure does not include Oxycodone prescriptions written by American Pain doctors but filled elsewhere.
The average salary for the five doctors working at American Pain in 2009 was more than $1 million per year. Evidence points to the fact that they get paid according to how many patients they see. The more patients, the more money.
More than $14 million in cash deposits were made into American Pain bank accounts in 2009.
Of the top 20 doctor purchasers of oxy in the country, five worked at American Pain in 2009.
One of the brothers/owners reportedly piled up about $40 million in assets.
Here’s how the Florida daily, The Sun Sentinel, led their story about the investigation:
Chris and Jeff George drove flashy cars, amassed property and made multimillion-dollar deals, radiating wealth and success while clients of their pain clinics got high and, in some cases, died, federal prosecutors allege in documents filed in U.S. District Court.
Supporting the twin brothers' lavish lifestyle was a stream of dirty cash from drug traffickers who routed painkillers to Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina, prosecutors allege.
While reporting "The OxyContin Express," Sgt. Richard Pisanti of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department compared the situation in South Florida to the Miami Vice days. "In the '80s and '90s cocaine was a big thing," he told us. "Now prescriptions have just exploded."
The difference is that in the '80s it was some Colombian drug lord supplying the goods. Today it’s doctor's offices that exploit loopholes in Florida's laws to maintain a thin veneer of legitimacy. Loopholes, it appears now, that are wide enough for a drug kingpin to amass a $40 million fortune.
As Kentucky Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo told us, "Pablo Escobar couldn't have had it any better."
But as it eventually did for Pablo, time might be running out for Florida's pill mills. The statistics speak for themselves. American Pain’s owners have yet to be charged, and they’ve reportedly hired a high profile defense attorney.
Even a conviction wouldn’t end illegal oxy dealing—but shutting down American Pain will almost certainly put a big dent in the number of pills handed out in Florida.
Watch "The OxyContin Express" after the jump below.
This time last year, we were deep into production on "The OxyContin... more
-
-
She stole drugs from a charity that was supposed to be giving them to suffering children in Africa for her habit...yet this guy wants to put people away for years for weed?She stole drugs from a charity that was supposed to be giving them to suffering... more
-
