the Oxycontin Express (documentary about Florida's HUGE problem)

Question

Has anyone seen this show? its on a network called Current. The show is called Oxycontin Express. I just saw it today and wow its crazy. Its a documentary about the problem the state of Florida has. They say over 9 million oxy's are RX'd from Florida alone, and people make pilgrimages from all over the US to get their pills from these "pain clinics" that take cash only. You have to take an MRI there, pay for each visit and you can take your script for several hundred oxy's down to a pharmacy that doesnt using tracking/reporting devices and get your drugs, bodda-boom-bodda-bing jump a flight back to wherever you came from and you have enough drugs to feed your addiction AND sell some for about 5 grand! CRAZY! and according to the state of florida, this is all perfectly legal! how in the hell is that possible ?  THey showed  a town in KY..greenup i think was the name - this whole town has been ravaged by oxy addiction. The sherriff said every single family in the town is effected in some way from the Oxy plague. Tons are now in jail, addicted or dead, or raising kids of the parents =who are jailed or dead.  It was a really sad, yet eye opening show to watch. Im still trying to figure out how FLorida gets away with this? Why hasnt the DEA shut these places down?

seahorse1963 · Answer

Do yourself a favor and don't entertain the thought too long....the high isn't woth the low, it robs you of everything which I'm sure y'all know.
If any day since I've been clean I wanted to use it would be today but due to pain, not to get high but there is no such thing as just one...so here I sit, a knot in my tummy and the urge to use with a whole lot of pain whaaaa!!!!!!!!  this too shall pass Please God, it's by Your stripes I'm healed thank You Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!

kolo13 · Answer

Oh good Lisa, I mean about the laughter. I'm sorry you've been having a bad day. This is day 16 for me and I'd have to say this is the best day I've had yet. I'm sending you good vibes from my day. I hope it finds you and makes it better. <3 <3 <3 (It's even funnier if you knew my mother)

Lisa034 · Answer

Now that is funny a hell   I am having a not so good day and you just make me laugh

Lisa034
Jacksonville,FL

kolo13 · Answer

Man what's wrong with me that my only reaction to reading this entire thread is a sudden urge to visit my mother in Florida.

co872 · Answer

Hey lisa I'm in Orange park, I know exactly what your saying thats how  got sucked into this new epidemic. I have a legit mri and can get oxy's any day of the week from 4 dr's in the same day if I want, and they only allow you to fill them in house. It's crazy and has to stop. keep fighting!

Lisa034 · Answer

I have to agree it is awful here in florida.  I live in Jacksonville and it is the same here as in miami.  Doc who only take cash that you have to have your own MRI and they do have pharmacies in the doc office.  One stop shop!  I did it I lived thru it thank god to see another day and thank god not in jail.  

Lisa 
Jacksonville,FL

Revcharberry · Answer

thank you for bringin this to my attention this vile, insiduous problem that is not regulated. one od is one too many and i hurt because my father who died when i was 6 months old died of either bad drugs or od and my daddy (man who took his place) died when i waas 17 in the bathroom over the toilet from drugs od. i never thought about these issues and my taking or not taking my percs. andother meds without a great deal of anxiety. I have become depressed just from reading this enlightening info. and I need to try to regroup. I asked a question about anyone's firsthand knowledge of a visualization and guided inagery cd that i could purchase' i dont knw what happened to the question i guess its in cyberspace. any suggestions? Rev,

dominosarah · Answer

another reason i am so grateful to be clean......sara

122 Tactical Fighter Group · Answer

You sound like a decent fellow, seahorse......  And you have my deepest sympathy on the OD death of your friend......Its a strange phenomena - -  but the news of OD's, incarceration,  and OverDose deaths is truly a part of the narcotic scene. (Not to mention "lead poisoning" because you were 2 grand short for the Cubans - and they dont play..) .... Too large a part. I combined methadone and zanax one time.........shortly after I went into respiratory arrest my son got the EMS to me and after quite an unconscious series of events - -  I woke 14 hours later from an induced coma with a Doc removing the trach tube that had been breathing for me - - -  Had a for real out of body / near death experience that surely changed my life!!   My current policy is to help as many POWs in NarcoLand as I possibly can return to the land of the big PX!    It may be hard to comprehend taking a human life - - but I am a Vietnam Era Vet - -  sometimes you just have to do things that you might not like - or die.  I would purely love to watch a finger four flight of F-4 Phantoms unload and expend all ordinance on the majority of those clinics................

seahorse1963 · Answer

I would bet it's both.  I know of an elderly man who has cancer and doctor shops to give oxy's to young ladies who show them thier silicone and God only knows what else.  The thought repulses me so I don't like to go there.  The sad part about it is his step daughter is in jail over perscription and credit card fraud due to her addiction, or should I say the sick part of it.  I'm not the one to get cranked over on this subject.  I woke up to a phone call yesterday saying someone I know had over dosed and was in intesive care due to the meds a pain management doctor here localy gave him.  Methadone, zanax and roxy/oxys equals death.  Been to too many funerals over this and I can't take it any more.  I have come to terms that I am not God (duh lol at least I'm laughing now) and I can't stop this insanity just protect the ones I love and love the ones I have.  I spend a lot of time on my knees in prayer to God to stop this.  Only an act of God will change this and I mean that and prayer changes things without a doubt.  The only other choice is lead and you can't get them all but you can get somes attention.  BUT, I in no way have it in me to take a life even if I wanted to nor would I want to.  How do people live with themselves?  It's so bad in Miami and Ft Lauderdale that in the parking lots of the doctors office is nothing but used needles laying all over the place.  These drugs need to be regulated better and not handed out like candy.  Granted some need them for pain ie cancer patience and I know a lot of doctors are good doctors that take an oath and truly want to help people so I am in no way using a wide brush to paint this picture but there has to be a better system in place to ensure this won't happen here.  Send these doctors back to their own countries and see what happens to them.  Only in the USA!

122 Tactical Fighter Group · Answer

Does absolutely anybody know who Sammy "The Bull" Gravano is?  He busted a large portion of organized crime as a snitch and a "Made Man" in the Mafia..........Sammy got set up and cooperated for a spot in the Witness Protection Program............Southwestern US - - He played a lot of golf and drank prodigiously.  Then he finally got bored.......to keep the boredom down Sammy started manufacturing X and smuggling it from Mexico to all points north.  Quality control never even occurred to that man - - In fact he said that the people that used the stuff just took their own chances - - - - - - - - IS anybody willing to place a bet on bootleg oxies and Norcos and whether or not organized crime finds them attractive?  I know.  I just wonder what partially informed section of this forum thinks its little old ladies and men lining up at these "clinics" - - - -  -

seahorse1963 · Answer

I'm happy to know someone else knows what's going on..the problem now is they are popping up in every county as quick as pelicans flock to a fish cleaning board.  :BITES

122 Tactical Fighter Group · Answer

South Florida - - I ran with the "Cocaine Cowboys" in the early 80's -- -  and it wasnt old crippled sunshine staters selling their meds to survive. It was generally a stand alone medical facility - usually with a Costa Rican Doc and Pharmacist.........they dont intend not to get caught. But when they do we merely send them packing and the organization changes address and stays in business with fresh Docs.........these "Docs" can put a whole lot of US dollars in their pockets for all the seriousness of a parking ticket!!  And regardless of whether you know of it or believe it or think that our DEA couldnt let it happen. BS>  I know people that collect busloads of migrant workers to take to their Doc of choice. The operators give the migrants 2 oxy's pre appointment so they test out properly. They then keep the migrants script for a pittance and give them 2 subs to hold them over until next appointment - usually one clinic a month.   My Doc was a cute Costa Lady - - educated and bright - not smart enough.......she is currently waiting her sentence for the deaths of three patients whose drug OD's were tracked directly to her and her Practice!!!

seahorse1963 · Answer

First hand expierince here and not proud of it (for the record I've never obtained script drugs illegaly),have not see the show...know in person..it's terrible..or there isn't a word bad enough to discribe the epidemic..I've known many over doses, know people incarsirated, investaged and yes old and selling their medication..but it's an epidemic in South Florida and has spread rapidly..alot of over doses in Beward Co and throughout the state that the pain managment (short course to take) have spread out in hopes to not get caught.  Cash money, MRI's, doctor shopping...it's ruining peoples lives innocient peoples lives...it's a living nightmare.

Ella789 · Answer

Yes, I watched it last week and it was just amazing !!!!   Some people can't get a Dr. to write them a prescription for any kind of a pain med and then,  there is this place where you can walk-in, pay cash and get loads of the stuff !!!!!!!  Man !  I would have thought it would happen somewhere in the world but not the U.S.A.     It has just brought so many people and their families such sorrow.  Drugs are powerfully addictive and to have a place that is a legalized drug house is amazing!! 
Ella////////  current tv and doc channel have some very good programs

sterling_silver · Answer

I live in Broward County. It is 100% true. It is not legal to go from doctor to doctor, but they have no way to check. Florida has no prescription medicine monitoring program. You can't get the scripts filled at Wallgreens or CVS. The clinics tell you where to go. Some clinics have their own pharmacy. The monthly diet they start you out on is,, 90- 30mg hydro. 60 soma and 60 xanax. It's crazy, but it's true. It is legal if you just go to one doctor. It has been on the front page of The Miami Herald and the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. I have sent 2 emails to my congress woman. She said that legislators are going to deal with it after the first of the year. Any Joe Blow can open a clinic, hire a doctor,,, and JACKPOT until they change the laws.

Related story. Read the naive comments after the story. 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/16/794120/-Ft-Lauderdales-Oxycontin-Express

Struggeling09 · Answer

guys seriously this is dead on. Fla is bad. I had multiple docs before i smartin up. Tampa area is an epidemic and now these kids can photo shop mri's and script histories and be well on there way.  It truly is a sad story and if they do get this comp system linked up there have problems in other states where people have hacked the system and got patients info such as ss numbers. So we will see what happens.

leeisgettingclean · Answer

I watched it as well, and you are corrrect about everything you said. They say in is the whole state, sometimes these things are blown up in these media stories. In my town their was a doctor that got arrested and they said that he wrote  a narcotic pain med for everyone of his cash patients well not true because myself and 3 others I know seen him of several sep occasions and never one time recieved a script, and not from a lack of trying, so EVERYONE....Hmmmmm a bit far from truth, but makes for a better story.

troubleinohio · Answer

really...maybe it is just in Broward county? are either of you from there? they did mention that was the county they did this documentary in..

allaboutmary · Answer

Yeah, I never could find a doctor to give me pain pills and lord knows I tried many times.

mr.lucky66 · Answer

It isn't really an oxy paridice in Fl. They are very zelous there and the Pharmacies are very tight. It might have been about an loophole that has been closed. there are just a lot of pill addicts there and refugees from the 'hillbilly heroin " area in the south. Most of the illegal pills come from older and chronic pain pts. who don't take them and sell them and there are a lot of them in Fl.