Reply #17: A bit east of you. [View All]

[jeepnstein]

We get them from West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky seeking prescriptions that they then wander around aimlessly trying to fill. Most pharmacies won't touch an Oxycontin prescription with a ten foot pole. There are still a few places that will fill the prescription. Addicts share information on a couple of web sites about who's writing and who's filling the prescriptions. Since the doctor's office I saw this morning is right next door to a new pharmacy I'm pretty sure they're trying to pull a fast one and make some serious money before skipping town. Fifty "patients" a day at $100 a visit, cash only, for a prescription really adds up after a while.

One of our little towns was even featured on Al Jazeera. It was a quite accurate account of the problem in a superficial kind of way. It's so bad here that by many accounts seven in ten job applicants for some very good positions locally can't pass the drug screening. In an area with major unemployment they can't find enough local labor because they're mostly addicted. It's truly turning into the haves and the have nots. The only twist is its "have addiction" or "have no addiction".

We get our heroin from Detroit mostly. They also have some source for pills there and it's not uncommon for street dealers to show up with Oxycontin in large amounts. Since the area is "open", meaning the gangs don't claim turf it's pretty much a gold rush right now. It got so bad Greyhound refuses to stop here because the mules were buying cheap tickets from Detroit and wearing out their welcome on the bus. The local police aren't really up to the task of dealing with it all and have more or less thrown up their hands in disgust and are asking for more money.

The addicts did try the home invasion game earlier this year. The result was several dead or crippled addicts. I think they have decided that business model just isn't working so well. You see a lot of young women stepping up to "care for" elderly men with chronic or terminal illnesses now. They rob the people blind, steal their medicines, and then leave them for dead after a few months. Many of these girls are from families with no previous criminal history. Don't even get me started on the local Emergency Room and the "take home packs" of Lortab.