Prescription Drug Abuse Exposed in "The OxyContin Express"
In Florida, an average of 11 people per day die of a prescription drug overdose. Between the time that Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson died of prescription drug overdoses, about 6,000 people in Florida died of the same cause.
These kinds of calculations were made during the editing of "The OxyContin Express," the premiere episode of this season of Current TV's original documentary series "Vanguard." The series is led by correspondents Laura Ling, Mariana van Zeller, Christof Putzel, Adam Yamaguchi, and Kaj Larsen.
“Vanguard” strives to highlight stories that no one else is telling, and although there has been considerable media coverage surrounding celebrity overdose deaths, the creators of the series realized that there is still much to be revealed about prescription drug abuse in America.
In the U.S., more people are now abusing prescription drugs than heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy combined. For "The OxyContin Express,” the journalists traveled to South Florida, which is now considered the "Colombia of prescription drugs."
Florida has become the main source of an illicit prescription drug pipeline. Lax laws and little oversight have led to a booming number of storefront pain management clinics that liberally dispense potent narcotics like oxycodone, best known by the brand name OxyContin.
Doctors in Florida prescribe OxyContin at five times the national average, which is a little less surprising when you consider that the state is home to the top 50 dispensing physicians of the drug in the entire nation.
This flood of pills has had a devastating effect in Florida, where three times as many people are now overdosing from prescription medication than from illegal drugs.
"As in the '80s and '90s cocaine was a big thing, now prescriptions have just exploded," says Sgt. Richard Pisanti of the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
But unlike cocaine, the source of these pills isn't a drug dealer—it's a doctor's office. In fact, Florida has gained such a reputation for the ease with which pills can be acquired that addicts and traffickers now travel from thousands of miles away just to visit the pain management clinics.
In the piece, “Vanguard” exposes a bustling pill pipeline that stretches from Broward County to the hills of Appalachia, where prescription drugs, particularly OxyContin, are in high demand.
Flying what’s been dubbed “The Oxy Express,” a low-cost airline popular with pill addicts and dealers transporting drugs from Florida, the journalists arrive in Kentucky, the state that leads the nation in prescription drug abuse. According to law enforcement and emergency room doctors there, the majority of the pills they are seeing are coming from doctors in Florida.
Addicts in Kentucky described to the journalists how once a month they'd pile into a car, drive 18 hours to Broward, and visit as many pain clinics as they could in a day or two. They'd return from Florida with thousands of pills for personal use and resale.
"Pablo Escobar couldn't have had it so good," says Kentucky Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo, who has made closing Florida's "pill mills" a personal crusade. "It's basically 'come here, give us cash and we'll give you a prescription.'"
In Greenup, Kentucky, the journalists witness the devastating impact Florida's pills have had on rural communities throughout Appalachia. Everyone has been affected, from self-described "pill billies" serving time in overcrowded prisons to families that both deal and inject Oxy.
"We're drowning in pills from Florida," says Greenup County Sheriff Keith Cooper, a small town lawman taking on a growing national epidemic. "These aren't doctors, they're drug dealers with degrees."
“Vanguard” airs every Wednesday at 10 pm on Current TV. For more information, visit current.com/vanguard.