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Do you think that the doctor that prescribes you the pills knows that you are addicted? Vanguard s3e1: Oxycontin Express, Current TV 2009
Massachusetts is now reeling from a new drug epidemic borne from another. Oxycontin is a national problem. But Oxy’s effect on the population of Massachusetts particularly its young people has been nothing short of devastating. Here Oxycontin has emerged as a gateway drug ... A state drowning in an endless stream of pills. Vanguard s5e1: Gateway to Heroin, Current TV 2011
Oxycodone – a highly addictive narcotic. ibid.
At sixty to eighty dollars per pill – the going black market rate around Boston – Frank’s habit was costing him $400 a day. He began to forge his father’s signature on cheques. ibid.
The truth is Oxycodone, the active ingredient in the painkillers ... is little more than a synthetic form of heroin. ibid.
Pills are now widely abused here more than cocaine, ecstasy and meth combined. ibid.
Doctors in Florida are responsible for prescribing 85% of all the Oxy in the US. ibid.
Pills have become a street drug – brought and sold just the same as cocaine and heroin. ibid.
But the story of the celebrity overdose overshadows a much larger issue. In the United States more people are now abusing prescription medication than heroin, cocaine and ecstasy combined. The drug of choice for a growing number of users is Oxycodone, a synthetic opiate ... It’s basically heroin made in a lab. Hillbilly Heroin
In Florida some pain clinics are known to dispense medication more than others. ibid.
Some clinics have been set up just to cater to pill addicts. ibid.
Florida has become the pain-killer capital of the US. Of all the Oxycodone dispensed by doctors in the whole country 85% of it comes from Florida. With the abundance of pills the state is seeing a new type of Tourism. ibid.
It’s called Pharmageddon. A hidden public health catastrophe caused by America’s addiction to prescription painkillers. Pill popping mums are creating addicts before they are even born. Drugs Inc s2e6: Pill Nation, National Geographic 2012
America is hooked and Britain could be going the same way. ibid.
Dealing in painkillers is a hugely profitable business. ibid.
Oxycodone or Hydrocodone: two opioids synthesised from raw opium. ibid.
Snorting or injecting the crushed up pills triggers a huge release of natural endorphins. ibid.
More Americans are addicted to prescription painkillers than heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine combined. ibid.
The American prescription painkiller epidemic is so widespread addicts and dealers don’t need to go to Mexico to get their fix from dodgy doctors. ibid.
Spurious pain clinics, known as pill mills, are set up to provide painkillers to the paying public. ibid.
Florida’s pill mills feed an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse across America. ibid.
The problem is getting worse by the day and no-one is immune. But Salt Lake's appetite for prescription drugs has created an entirely new breed of dealer: one that plugs directly into the City’s religious culture. Drugs Inc s5e1: Salt Lake Sinners
There’s one drug that stands out from the pack: Oxycodone ... In 2012 over 50% of prescription opioid deaths in Utah were caused by Oxycodone. ibid.
The city’s drug market is changing fast. Heroin is in huge demand. ibid.
Mexico’s most feared cartel is closing in. ibid.
Salt Lake City has 2,500 known gang members. ibid.
Wyoming County, West Virginia: Welcome to Oceana: It was a wonderful place to raise children. Oxyana, woman, 2013
Now they experiment with so many pills and most of them are synthetic and they are very addictive and it’s taken a generation of our kids. ibid.
It’s an epidemic here. ibid. woman #2
We got the Oxys, the Xanax, and it completely changes people. ibid. dude
Just about everybody around here’s on dope. ibid. dude #2
If you don’t work in the mines, the only way to make money … is to sell drugs. ibid. dude #3
I pay the doctor $1,000 dollars a month. ibid. dude #4
Hepatitis C here they said is 70-80% of this town. ibid.
Half the babies in the nursery are on Methadone. ibid. doctor
The United States is in the midst of the worst drug epidemic in its history. More people die from overdoses of opioid drugs than from car accidents or gun homicides. The epidemic was fuelled by an aggressive 1990s marketing campaign led by Purdue Pharma that promoted the widespread use of opioids to treat pain and minimized the risk of addiction. Warning: This Drug May Kill, Sky Atlantic 2017
‘Less than 1% of patients taking opioids actually become addicted.’ ibid. Purdue promotional video
Prescription opioids include OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, Opana, Demerol, Dilaudid, Norco, Fentanyl, Codeine. Heroin is also an opioid. Deaths from prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999. ibid.
In 2007 Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to lying about a risk of addiction to Oxycontin, paying one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements in US history. Yet Oxycontin and other opioids remain a multi-billion dollar industry. More than 250 million prescriptions are written every year. ibid.
80% of heroin users started with prescription opioids. ibid.
With daily opioid use, physical dependence can develop within as little as one week. ibid.
91 people die every day from an opioid overdose. ibid.
Inside an epidemic: a radical new approach, the police and social workers on the ground, the personal battles, and the new face of addiction. Frontline: Chasing Heroin, PBS 2016
It’s been creeping up on us for a long time – America’s heroin problem. Overdoses from heroin and other opioids now kill more than 27,000 people a year and the numbers keep rising. ibid.
‘The marketing of OxyContin was the most aggressive marketing of a narcotic drug ever undertaken by a pharmaceutical producer.’ ibid. Doctor
By 2001 Purdue was selling more than $1 billion of OxyContin a year. ibid.
Purdue Pharma admitted to charges of fraudulent marketing. The company paid $600 million in fines and settlements. ibid.
Mexican drug suppliers were ready: they would take the epidemic to a whole new level. ibid.
Up to 60% of addicts relapse in the first year after treatment. ibid.
90% of new heroin users are white. ibid.
One of three people referred to drug treatment come in through the criminal justice system. ibid.
Chicago, October 2 2015: 74 overdoses in 72 hours; Cincinnati, Ohio, August 2 2016: 20 overdoses in 12 hours; Louisville, Kentucky, August 31 2016: 8 Overdoses in 5 hours; Huntington, West Virginia, August 18 2016: 27 overdoses in 4 hours. Heroin Explosion, captions, National Geographic 2017
This is the story of today’s opiate epidemic which has been called the worst drug crisis in American history. There is a new generation of heroin addicts, young people that cross all social, racial and economic groups. ibid.
Every day 91 people in the United States die of an opiate overdose. 35 of those are from heroin. ibid.
‘This generation seems to have found prescription opiates as their drug of choice.’ ibid. Dr Deebi Bassam
Most first-time abusers of painkillers obtain them from a friend or relative. ibid.
Florida became ground zero for the growing epidemic … Dealers abandoned traditional street drugs to get a slice of the Florida pill business. ibid.
One clinic wrote prescriptions for more than a million Oxycodone pills in a five-month period. ibid.