This is alarmng.The Goverment needs to close down all the Doctors and mills involved.Why should some Doctors have to follow rules when other are outlaws.If this is not shut down now it will be the wild west.We should not waste our $ on programs when no one is watching the Drug company's and Doctors.And they also need to stop this Doctor shopping that has been going wayyy to long.The on line pharmacy's are a joke.These should not be able to sell controlled drugs.What are we paying out tax dollors for?Im stupid because I do expect people to do thier jobs.Stupid me.The selling of death. What a sad story.What is the cost to society?the family?

a one sentence story. post more information on this please

this story hits very close to home for me. i am an addict, ive been through rehab, twice. im a 24 year old with a morgage, and i go to work everyday. although i have a very serious, and sometimes uncontrolable problem, i am a productive member of society, and a good person. the problem with narcotic addiction is absolutly horrific. but although we try so hard to stop, sometimes it feels utterly impossible. the pain, physical and mental, can take your breath away. you feel at our lowest when your coming down or withdrawling, but you feel like your someone, or that you atleast belong when you get your fix. its a sad sad cycle, i just hope myself, and other struggling addicts out there can find it within ourselves to overcome this horrible disease that has consumed our lives, and taken us for granted, in a sence. happy safe holidays!

angie

The pill mills exist because this country refuses to use capitalistic principals when dealing with addiction. What I mean is taking out the profit motive. The United Kingdom (England) has done this with some degree of success.

Their system gives addicts their drugs free of charge, 1 day supply at a time, from the pharmacy of their choice. This both reduces the chance of overdose and removes the profit from the drug dealers, (who STILL face prison if caught). As a result, there aren't a lot of dealers recruiting new addicts, (but they still have a problem caused by Doctors prescribing pain pills inappropriately).

Addicts in the U.K. don't need to acquire large sums of money to support their habit, and the tax payer is saved a lot of money. The program costs less than 1/10th of the cost of prison. There is less street crime as well.

The 'Doctors' running the pill mills here where I live charge hundreds of dollars per visit and see dozens of 'patients' a day. The clinics in the U.K. are free.

Addicts are not evil, they have a disease. Because there is no system in place to deal with the large number of addicts we have, we are forced to tolerate the mills. There are not nearly enough beds in detox facilities, we would have chaos if we stopped the supply suddenly.

What exactly is a pill mill?

Thx, Chintay

just make pot legal, and we won't have so many deaths. why is it that we still think that man made chemicals are so much better that what nature has made??? Who dies of pot overdose? noone, it's impossible.

Technus

Pot impairs. Impaired drivers kill/get killed...DUH!

p.s. Death Angel mushrooms, Botulism Toxin and Rattlesnake venom are 'nature made'.

to much of anything is a bad thing but in all reality people need to stop comparing marijuana to drugs of such caliber like prescription meds cocaine etc one and the other are not the same and hey if you want to smoke a joint why not shoot more people get killed by drunk drivers everyday but dang it that liquor store opens bright and early everyday no one says anything about that really every true stoner knows their limits so in my eyes a pointless battle that really has nothing to do with "drug addicts" just used as a scapegoat in my opinion and by the way all the legal drugs are killing us everyday gee the water we drink the food we eat the air we breathe and i could go on and on and on

I fhtye legalized marijuana(medicinal or across the board)then this would not be such a major problem anymore.I'v been taking tranqs,sedatives,morphine,loratab10's among a host of other meds for very many years.I would much rather use a little marijuana as it really does help with the pain much more than the narcotics do without any after effects,same with the tranqs and sedatives,I get more out of using a little pot for my depression,PTSD,anxiety attacks and panic attacks and flasbacks and nightmares thern the tranqs and sedatives do and unlike the narcotics it is not liver and kidney destroying

It's time we got smart on crime, not "tough". What that means is declaring stuff like marijuana legal and concentrating on crap like this that actually does harm. America has the only for-profit prison system in the world and it's killing the country. We're the laughing stock of the civilized world because of our hypocrisy. We have the highest percentage of our population in the criminal system of any nation in all of history. That's insane. WE NEED TO GET SMART ON CRIME!

i was a meth addict. i never had a problem with pain pills until i was introduced to oxycontin, prescribed for a painful bi lateral foot condition. and i worked on my feet, walking several miles in a day in a busy well known hotel. it is a great pain reliever, and i had no problems abusing it in the beginning, cuz i was taking it for pain. but soon one of my teachers, and other friends, learned that i was getting scripts. and they started making up stories that i believed, so i wud hook them up. i thought they were really in pain. soon i had new tires, my car insurance was paid, i had money in my pocket. even tho i wasnt actually selling them, these friends and one teacher was good to me. made sure i had the extras that i had a hard time affording. pretty soon i got to where i had to find it on the street i didnt have enuf to keep up with my friends demands. by then i'd figured out these guys wud pay anything. they wud come to my door sick, the saddest, a doctor, who also taught at the college i was attending. i rmember one day he came sweating and sick looking, i didnt have anything for him. he begged me to help him. said he had to get to the clinic to work and had to teach schol that evening. my kits witness this. this same teacher eventually told me he was shooting them up, and i swear he showed me how to do it so i wud abused them too. i think he thought it was was abusing, instead of just taking as prescribed, then i wud try harder to find us both some. he showed me how to cook them, breaking them down, so that they cud be shot up, and we wud get instand urphoia. it was kind of like putting ur body into a cloud. everything went foggy, and slow, and i got tired. the exacty opposite of my previous addiction to speed. so for awhile i too started abusing them, shooting them up in the bathroom at work, it was awful. i had located guys that wud have their old sick mothers go to the doc and get the scripts, then they wud have medicaid pay for the scripts which was nearly 1000 a month. then they wud sell me the pills for 35 a piece, and i wud sell them for 40 or 45, therefor making myself money so that i cud feed my own addiction. but for me it wasnt enuf, i kept trying to get the high i got off speed, and soon after after 7 yrs off speed, i was once again doing speed, and oxycontins. lost the best job i ever had in my life, quit school in which i own thousands in students loans. i lost my 2 cars, sold my washer/dryer computer, furniture, everything in my house for drug money. my kids and i got thrown out into the streets with out even a car to live in. my son had had enuf and went to live in safety with his big sister, my daughter went with her druggie boyfriends. there wasnt much i cud do. i cudnt even take care of myself,. after a yr or so on the streets with my dogs, after i lost everything, i didnt even have a change of clothes after awhile. it just all seems to disaappper when u r hanging out with other druggies, most of them are thieves and will take everything u own, including ur clothes and shoes while u are sleeping. fortunatly i was lucky enuf to get into a treatement, and they changed my way of thinking.changed my heart, and ive manged to stay clean off the meth for over 4 yrs, and oxycontin. i do have to take methadone for chronic pain issues, but i promised myself i wud never shoot them up or take more than prescribed. i cannever go back to that life. i will die next time. i take them as needed for pain. im in physical therap 3 times a week in hopes of handling my pain issues that way, and to get off the methadone. i dont like having to take them, but if im not abusing them, then i am ok with it. and i dont think that i am breaking my sobriety. for others tho, with similar cronic pain issues, they are not so lucky, and burn thru their months worthof pain pills in the first week or two. or sell them for the money. they cant think ahead like ive been blessed to do. they just live in the moment. they spend days in bed sick, steal money to buy stuff off the street, beg their doctors for more making up excuses. it makes it hard cuz one time i really left my backpack on the bus. my pain meds were in there. they doctor couldnt give me more. he told me i was responsible for them. and i wudnt be getting anymore till the next month. luckly someone honest turned my backpack in, and the bus callled me. and my medictions were safe. but i dont carry them with me anymore. maybe 2 if im goig to be gone all day so that i have one extra dose with me for later. i have to keep them locked u-p in a gun safe. it is awful. anyway its a bad deal plz never try it.

i just noticed the other comments on legalizing marajauna. u are all in denial that it is too a drug. the reason we compare drugs to marajauna is because pot is a drug. its that simple. some people can smoke it on occasion, and put it down, but for others, they have to be stoned all day long in order to function, and they are pieces of work. just as bad as i was doing speed and oxycontin. at least i wud get off the couch. the pot heads get stoned and sleep all day, wont get jobs. my daughter cannot function without it. she gets agitated, has no energy, screams and yells, cries, gets sick, until she smokes her pot. so u will never convince me that its any better of a drug than the rest of them. it is destroying her life. her family, taking everything she has. just like the speed and the oxycontin did to me. a drug is a drug is a DRUG. period. there is no one drug better than the other.

These drugs are ruining peoples lives. Something should have been done about this growing problem, long ago. The people that are hooked on these drugs: most of them probably dont even need them for pain; alot of these people are young. I've seen it destroy so many families; they've lost their homes, marriages, children, and families. It also affects their loved ones, to see them this way. It not only destroys their lives, but their loved ones lives, as well. Something needs to be done about this now!

Don't make laws against the drug. It's never the drugs fault.

Don't make it harder for people who need medications, legit. Life is hard enough as it is.

People who have not been taught to be responsible for their own thoughts and actions that are the problem.

Why can't I get help???? Why must I drive to Huntington treatment center which is an hour and a hafe away to get treatment!! I am 8 months pregnant and methadone was amazing at helping me fight the addiction but I could not afford the drive to huntington everyday!! Why is there not a methadone clinic in Portsmouth where it is undeniably needed???? Do they really want to try to fix or help the problem or do the officials just wants to stick a little more grant money in their pockets???