Opioid-Based Prescription Drugs, America's New Cocaine: A Patient’s Own Story

By James C. Rackley Jr.

The Author chose to write this book because he recognized that there was a correlation between street addiction and patient addiction to prescription medications and the culture of fear and stigma that currently exists in many pain clinics today.
Because of the explosion in the abuse of opioid-based prescriptions too many doctors have become suspicious of their patients. In their defense, they’re being investigated in some circumstances so they’re making a genuine effort to cleanse their clinics of the abusers, most especially, the addicts that aren’t really suffering at all (addicts masquerading as patients).
Unfortunately, pain doctors sometimes get it wrong when they’re over suspicious of legitimate patients needing an increase in their dose or quantity to relieve their chronic suffering. This also causes patients who take their medications as prescribed to fear their doctors when they have a legitimate need to increase their medication’s strength.
This book was not written to attack pain management specialists. Many have even opened addiction clinics in their own practices in order to address this epidemic, and others are doing their best to prove that they‘re not over-prescribing anymore. Opioid-based prescriptions are firmly settled in to the number-two-spot on the list of “most abused drugs in America,” ahead of Cocaine and behind Marijuana. Prescribed opioids are America’s New Cocaine, for now.
It’s my sincere hope, however, that opioid-based prescription medication will lose its new found status as soon as possible."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 3, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456808143

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Copyright © 2010 by James C. Rackley Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/01/2022

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1, (Some Basic Information)

Chapter 2, (The Patient)

Chapter 3, (The Doctors)

Chapter 4, (The Addict)

Chapter 5, (The Dealer)

Chapter 6, (The Pharmacies)

Chapter 7, (Conclusion)

Endnotes, (Bibliography)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I WOULD LIKE to sincerely thank everyone who helped contribute to this body of work. Also, I would like to thank reporter, Jenny Manning and Padmaja R. Yatham, M.D. for their personal assistance in helping me complete this book. For those who shared their stories and are still suffering with addiction, I can’t thank you enough for having the courage to share your suffering. It is my most sincere hope that my friends, family and everyone else who lives with the agony of withdrawal syndrome, will soon find the relief they desperately need so that they can escape their addictions. Finally, I would like to thank my parents whom I owe my life. They were there for me after my injury when the insurance company denied my claim. Without them I probably would’ve ended up in a nursing home and never would’ve gotten the chance to finish litigating. I also owe them a debt of gratitude for supporting my efforts with this work.

INTRODUCTION

F OR MANY DECADES leading up to the end of the 20 th century, the hard drugs of choice in the United States were considered to be cocaine, heroine and methamphetamines. In the 21 st century, however, prescription opioids are America’s New Cocaine. Legalized with the stroke of a pen on a monthly basis, there seems to be no escape for those who find themselves addicted to pharmaceutical, opiate-based drugs. They can always find someone to sell them a portion or a full prescription of their pills. Many Americans who don’t even need the medicine are creative enough to become patients themselves. After that it is left to doctor’s discretion to decide whether or not to give these imposters the keys to the medicine cabinet every month. As we look into this epidemic we must remember that one persons problem, or addiction, is for many others, the answer to their suffering. With that said, we will examine this trend toward prescription pills from several perspectives; the patients, the doctors, the dealer, the pharmacies and, of course, the addict.

In order to protect my sources from legal or other consequential action I will be lending some of them new names or I won’t mention their name at all. Often legitimate patients with a genuine need for opiate-based pain medications become addicts themselves. In some cases due to the recent reluctance by doctors to treat patients properly some have to buy their medications on the street or borrow from someone who takes the same medication. I’ve had some brief experience with this myself. Not because of addiction though. Put simply, if the local pharmacy can’t fill your prescription you’d be surprised what you would do to end the suffering. I wouldn’t categorize myself as an addict but after treating my chronic pain for a decade with opiate-based pain relievers, my body has definitely built up a dependence on these medications. Moreover, the pain worsens every year. This creates a need for progressively stronger drugs. At least once every year-and-a-half I find myself making a decision to increase either the short-acting or the long-acting pain relievers.

When I was younger and much healthier drug-use and/or addiction was much simpler for me. In 1989 I was fifteen-years-old and until I turned twenty-two my favorite drug of choice was beer, my second-favorite, marijuana. And although I experimented with cocaine, I never could afford, financially, to become truly addicted. I would do it if it was around but I never had to have it when it wasn’t. That’s not to say that there aren’t any cocaine addicts left. There are plenty. But currently, American’s have found something else to snort. A whole new generation of addicts and experimenters have come into their own, some of them having never even tried the hard drugs my generation grew up with. Their drug of choice is prescription pills, mostly the opioids. They can take it orally as patients do or they can crush it into a powder and snort it. Some even shoot the pills with a needle (banging it) but many choose to break it down to a fine powder and inhale it through the nose. Pill-based opioids truly have become America’s New Cocaine. I gave up beer when I was twenty-two years-of-age. I’ve always smoked pot and strongly disagree with most laws pertaining to it. It’s not a gateway drug either. That assertion is completely absurd. That’s like saying that if someone drinks a beer or smokes any brand of ferociously addictive cigarettes they’re likely to try cocaine. Ridiculous! I’d argue rather, that if a person drank or smoked anything before