Man's Life Takes a Drastic Turn After OxyContin Addiction Develops
For a number of individuals throughout the nation, an addiction to prescription drugs does not start out as a means by which to escape reality, but instead as a way to combat pain from a true medical need.
A recent article in the Monterey Herald focused on just such a situation for Brennan Tiffany. His life showed tremendous promise until he was diagnosed at 29 with a painful degenerative disease requiring the first of several hip replacement surgeries.
Now at 33, Tiffany has been arrested and sentenced to four years in prison for robbing a string of Peninsula pharmacies of OxyContin. Prosecutor Meredith Sillman told the court Tiffany had terrorized his victims in an attempt to feed his addiction.
Defense attorney Juliet Peck painted a different picture of a victim instead of a criminal. She described Tiffany as having fallen prey to the nationwide phenomenon of people with no prior records who turn into criminals due to an addiction to OxyContin. For Tiffany, his first hip surgery led to others as well as intense pain.
"Sixty milligrams, every eight hours, month after month, year after year," she said. Adding that over time, Tiffany's tolerance to the drug increased, but not to his pain. He needed more OxyContin to put a dent in it and became desperate.
"His sole focus became getting more OxyContin," she said. "He hocked his film equipment, then in total desperation, in August 2009, he walked into that first pharmacy."
While the defense asked for leniency and mercy for Tiffany, it was pointed out that he did not get the help he needed after his first offense. He was not arrested at that time, but he also did not seek to change his ways.