Portrait Of A Pain Pill Addict - Who's Using It - Who Are They?

Take a moment and imagine what a drug addict, or "junkie" looks like.  Got the image in your mind?  Okay, does the image of the drug addict you pictured in your mind look like a straight-laced high school teacher, or college professor?  Do they look like a typical grandfather, or grandmother?

How about a priest, minister, or rabbi - do they look like that?  How about a policeman, or a judge, a talk show host, a politician, or an international diplomat?  Maybe they're all too old.  How about the star quarterback of the high school football team, or the school's prom queen?  How about a perfectly adjusted teenager who came from a loving, supportive family? 

Well if these people don't strike you as the image of a drug addict, you better update your "image files," because pain killers are making junkies out of people who don't fit the typical image or age group of what we used to think a drug addict was.  As you're going to learn, people from all walks of life and all age groups are falling prey to pain killer addiction.

According to a report released the week of June 19th, 2006, ("Non-medical Users of Pain Relievers: Characteristics of Recent Initiates,") more people began using narcotic pain relievers for non-medical reasons in the last year surveyed than started using marijuana or cocaine.  According to the report, 2.4 million persons 12 years of age or older initiated non-medical use of prescription pain relievers in the 12 months prior to the survey, 2.1 million started using marijuana, and 1 million began using cocaine.  The report, was released by HHS's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The top drugs used by percentage from most to least were:

An interesting factor in this survey is this.  87% of those that used pain pills for non-medical purposes (for "buzz" purposes only) used alcohol prior to it.  And of those that used Oxycontin for "buzz" purposes, 99.4% had used alcohol before using the Oxycontin.  Frankly, we don't know exactly what that means, but it's a compelling ratio.  (The figures were extracted from the Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted in 2004, so obviously, it's admittedly somewhat dated.)

But the bottom-line is the bottom-line.  For reasons we'll make clear in a moment, prescription drug abuse of drugs like Oxycontin is becoming more prevalent among age groups that used to be under and over the typical age demographic.  It's not unusual to find "tweens" and teens in a detox facility and it's not unusual to find retirees as well, most of whom have lived virtually their entire lives drug-free.  So what happened?  Read on.

The Power Of "Love"

North America is in a love affair with pain pills, and we all know about the power of love.  How powerful is it?  A man in Oklahoma City craved painkillers so much, in desperation for more, he shoved a hat pin into his urethra, hoping that the blood in his urine would convince doctors to prescribe narcotics.  Another man in Oklahoma City intentionally burned himself and on multiple occasions, broke his thumb with a hammer so doctors would give him more pills.

Or consider the man who was once a Department of Justice prosecutor and Marine JAG attorney who was involved in an auto accident and was prescribed pain pills.  He grew dependent and transferred over to heroin to which he became addicted.  Chronic depression and suicidal ideation followed and subsequently, he finds himself standing trial on charges of bank robbery.  Such is the power of pain pill addiction and it's far from cheap.  In Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a man is busted for prescription fraud to support his Oxycontin addiction.  The cost of his addiction?  One thousand dollars a day!

"Wrestle" With This

Professional wrestler Shane Douglas was put on Oxycontin five years ago and has now come forward with his tale of addiction.  He says that he had used percocet and vicodin and other drugs before and never had a problem with them.  But apparently, when he went on Oxycontin and the insurance company was paying for it, life got de-railed.  His habit grew to an astonishing fifty pills a day (yes, that would kill the average person, or for that matter, the average grizzly bear) and he says he knew others that took less pills with less milligrams that have since passed away.

One of his greatest frustrations was his difficulty in finding treatment and eventually, he had to detox himself off the pills which he definitely does NOT recommend people do, as it was extremely painful.  We're going to assume that when someone in his profession says something is painful, you can assume it's seriously painful - these guys don't say "ouch" easily.

And as you'll learn on the next page, it gets worse.

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