The growing prescription drug epidemic in the United States has now officially eclipsed the abuse of both heroine and cocaine combined.
HDNet's hit show "Dan Rather Reports" focused on the topic of prescription drug abuse last night. The show centered on the booming business for "pill mills" - locations where prescriptions for muscle relaxers, pain killers and opiates are handed out with a low degree of control. Taking place in Austin, Texas, the show sent reporters into these locations in search of easy prescriptions. The results were shocking: 300 or more highly dangerous pills being prescribed at one time.
Further, the report focused on pharmacies that filled the large, unnecessary orders. Part theory and part fact, the report stressed the way these two groups work together to make money off of selling drugs for recreation while they are actually meant to be used for wellness. Without the care of a doctor, abuse of these drugs will take the lives of thousands of Americans this year. You can read a synopsis of the report in this press release below.
One issue the show did not directly address is what abuse of prescription medication does to DUI enforcement procedures. Even taken according to a doctor's orders, these highly intoxicating medications can alter a person's ability to operate a moving vehicle. Many people must take these pills to recover from surgeries, prevent incapacitating pain and carry on daily life. Others, especially young persons, use these pills to get high. In both cases, driving after using the pills is dangerous.
Current DUI enforcement techniques, such as field and breath tests, are not always sufficient in order to detect prescription pill use. Officers are now receiving training on signs a person may be intoxicated even if he or she has not consumed alcohol. They are taught to look for signs such as inability to multitask, distraction and fatigue.
The problem with these methods is the way they can easily be confused for other issues, such as stress or anxiety that comes with being stopped on suspicion of DUI. Ultimately, it is highly difficult to enforce laws against driving while under the influence of these medications.
The issues behind this enforcement problem run deep; they point to how hard it is to actually say when a person is "too drunk to drive." All 50 states have a universally accepted legal limit for alcohol ingestion. The affect of other factors, though, can render a person entirely capable of driving or entirely incapable, even when under the legal limit.
The new age of DUI enforcement is much more challenging than issuing a simple breath test. Arguing for tougher laws, such as those that allow for random breath testing or mandatory ignition interlock devices, do not address the face of intoxication today. Legislators will have to deal with this rising abuse issue and others if they want to make streets safer through laws alone.
HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Exposes Texas 'Pill Mills'
www.prnewswire.com
Thousands of prescription drugs are handed out daily in Houston-area pain relief centers - often without seeing a medical doctor, Tuesday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET
DALLAS, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Tomorrow's "Dan Rather Reports" travels to Houston, Texas to investigate the very legal practice of some so-called "pain relief centers" dispensing potent prescription drugs without a doctor's care or examination. Many of these centers, that accept cash only, are located in strip malls across the Houston area.
These clinics, commonly known as "pill mills," operate mostly on a walk-in, first come - first serve basis, and do not accept credit cards, or insurance. The average visit is around $85.00. While these centers may be convenient for people who might not have health insurance, or the money to see a pain specialist, police say the business taking place here is dubious. That these centers attract illegal drug traffickers from nearby states such as Mississippi and Louisiana who allegedly fill prescriptions of powerful and addicting opiates, painkillers and anti-depressants and take them back home to sell on the black market.
"What we see from the people we arrested from owning these clinics are your former crack or cocaine dealers from the '80s or '90s who are now getting into the pill business as an illicit commodity," said John Kowal, a veteran narcotics officer with the Houston Police Department. Kowal tells Rather that many drug dealers fill these prescriptions for drugs such as hydrocodone (a pain killer), Soma (a muscle relaxant) and Xanax (an anti-depressant). "[The dealers make] more money. And you got less overhead. It does not have to be imported from Columbia or Mexico or come across the border. It's manufactured here right in the United States."
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, nearly seven million Americans are abusing prescription drugs; that's more than the number who abuse heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and hallucinogens combined. These legal painkillers are the newest drug of choice among drug users and the leading cause of drug overdoses.
In his report Rather speaks to Ken and Esther Scarborough of Beaumont, Texas who lost their son to a drug overdose - drugs that he purchased from a Houston-area "pill mill." Just five days before he died, Christopher had simply walked into a local "pain relief center" and returned home with nearly four hundred pills.
"In my view [this] would be no different than if he had gone to the doctor and said, 'You know, I'm just a little depressed. I'm depressed, and I don't really know what I want to do.'" Ken Scarborough told Rather about Christopher's visit to the "pill mill." "Instead of giving him pills, the doctor would say, 'Well, I tell you what-- just go ahead and take this pistol and these six bullets, and go out to the shooting range and-- make yourself feel better. Just do a little target practice.'"
There are those people, however, who are working to change the laws surrounding these "pill mills" and how easily people can get their hands on prescription drugs. Texas Senator Tommy Williams has worked to pass legislation to combat the problem - including a requirement that physicians own and operate these clinics and that they review cases 30% of the time instead of the current 10%.
"In two of the six counties I represent, in 2006, we had over one hundred deaths from prescription drug overdoses," Williams tells Rather. "And-- that was a lot, given that one of those counties has about 80,000 people; the other one has about 250,000 or 260,000 people."
While there are many legitimate pain management clinics that Williams wants to protect, he wants to eradicate "pill mills" in Texas.
"The pain management clinics are really legitimate. There are a lot of good ones in the state. We want those guys to be able to keep practicing," Williams tells Rather. "But-- we want to hang out the 'You're not welcome' sign for the 'pill mills.'"
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