Dropping Like Flies.

[charlie sherrill]

Drug overdoses are way up around here. We've been averaging one a week for the last several months. That may not sound like much to some of you big city guys but with a county of less than 80,000 that's a lot. That figure doesn't even count the ones dying inside city limits. Most of the drugs used are prescription with the Lortab/Soma/Xanex combo being the favorite. One was a very large naked woman who was found dead on a toilet. She had been there several days. Her drug of choice was morphine.

Apparently nobody higher than the local level is very excited about this. Pills are apparently very easy to come by. Several pill mills (doctor/phamacist combos) have been busted but more pop up. The latest ones have been in Slidell,La. and Beaumont,Tex. This weeks OD got his stuff in Texas. To a person these folks ain't exactly pillars of the community nor do they even contribute to society, but they all did have families that loved them. I heard "bleach in the gene pool" mentioned while talking with some people about this. Even though society may be better off without these folks, as I mentioned before, they did have families.

I know DEA has got their hands full chasing pot and coke but prescription stuff is what's killing folks around here. You'de think with everything being computerized the way it is that docs and drug stores cranking out too much of this stuff might run up a red flag somewhere.

 

[charlie sherrill]

Drug overdoses are way up around here. We've been averaging one a week for the last several months. That may not sound like much to some of you big city guys but with a county of less than 80,000 that's a lot. That figure doesn't even count the ones dying inside city limits. Most of the drugs used are prescription with the Lortab/Soma/Xanex combo being the favorite. One was a very large naked woman who was found dead on a toilet. She had been there several days. Her drug of choice was morphine.

Apparently nobody higher than the local level is very excited about this. Pills are apparently very easy to come by. Several pill mills (doctor/phamacist combos) have been busted but more pop up. The latest ones have been in Slidell,La. and Beaumont,Tex. This weeks OD got his stuff in Texas. To a person these folks ain't exactly pillars of the community nor do they even contribute to society, but they all did have families that loved them. I heard "bleach in the gene pool" mentioned while talking with some people about this. Even though society may be better off without these folks, as I mentioned before, they did have families.

I know DEA has got their hands full chasing pot and coke but prescription stuff is what's killing folks around here. You'de think with everything being computerized the way it is that docs and drug stores cranking out too much of this stuff might run up a red flag somewhere.

 

[Out West]

Well how about that? Just as I post...so do you. Thanks,

Out West

 

[2Loud4You]

I have sympathy for the families who lost a love one but I can't really say I have sympathy for the person who overdosed.

 

[arkypete]

It's not what happens it what you call it. Don't think of it as drug over dose, think of it as the final drug rehab for that person.

Jim

 

[cmort666]

Well, as they used to say when I was kid, "Why do you think they call it dope?"

 

[bettis1]

...a very large naked woman who was found dead on a toilet.

Charlie,
Do you know the difference between "naked" and "nude"?


"Nude" is when you don't have any clothes on.

"Naked" is when you don't have any clothes on and you are doing something you shouldn't be doing.

Bob

 

[Bassamatic]

Even if the DEA dropped everything they have on their plate and went after these pill mills as you call it, I doubt it would make a lick of difference.

People bent on self destruction will always find a way to succeed.

 

[Bob R]

When I worked on tne rez in Montana abuse of prescription meds was rampant. I am sure it still is.

Why buy drugs when the .gov will give them to you?

Alot of the people being prescribed pain meds legitimatly were eitherselling them or had them stolen.

And yes, misused legally prescribed drugs kill a person just as dead as illicit drugs.

bob

 

[mississippi revolverman]

The problem with making a case against a Dr and a drug mill is it takes much longer that a street buy. Dr are usally more careful that a street pusher. Also the Prosecution wants much more in the case.

I feel sure the DEA is working on it just takes longer, natuere of the beast

 

[handejector]

Good to see you, Charlie.

It is easy to take the hard line on people who abuse drugs and OD, till you attend the funeral of someone you knew, or hear about the death of a young person you remember being in class with your kid in grammar school and playing in your yard.

The local Sheriff's Office has a series of photos of the same woman that probably covers 12-15 years. They are all of the same blond female that is probably around 19-20 in the first one. She is drop-dead gorgeous. She is a meth-head. In the later pics, she looks like she is ready for the lead role in a zombie flick.
Tragic.
What a waste.

 

[beaverislander]

Michigan has a computerized record system where all controlled substance Rx's are transmitted to the State every month. It gets interesting when you find that not only does a person get a couple of hundred Vicodins or OxyContin's from you every month, but they are doing the same thing at 6 other stores within a 30 mile radius. Sometimes you try talking to the person, sometimes the Doc (or Docs,) and sometimes the State Police narcotics team. It would be one thing if they were taking all of the pills by themselves, but you always worry about how many of them are getting into the hands of kids.
(As a side note, when it comes to Vicodin/Norco a lot of these people are so busy trying to figure out how to get more and more of these drugs that they don't realize that it is the acetaminophen kicker in them that is destroying their livers.)

 

[GONAVY]

It is a problem. I normally can spot them a mile off and end it on the first visit. Every great once in awhile one will still give a plausible story you buy into but figure out later on. We try to run a tight ship, pharmacy profiles on pts. and just like the cops watch for trends.
You hope that we don't turn people away who really need pain relief but I'm sure that happens as well. Once you are I.D. as a prescription drug abuser we send a letter discharging you from the practice etc.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

We haven't seen the OD increase so much over hear-but the increase in violent crime is sickening due in LARGE part from the Katrina influx in New Iberia-the Mexicans in Morgan City and throughour the district as well as the sprawl of Lafayette itno St. Martin Parish-We are technically a "rural (meaning not a metropolitan) district bue our figures are up there with the cities and I think we passed Alexandria. It's insane out there

 

[sparkgap]

Drugs for sex charges filed
St. Louis doctor faces drug, prostitution charges
By TERESA RESSEL
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Apr 02, 2009 - 09:56:37 CDT
FARMINGTON — Charges have been filed in St. Francois County against the St. Louis podiatrist who police say tried to exchange prescription drugs for sex.

On Wednesday, St. Francois County Prosecutor Wendy Wexler Horn charged Dave Dai Quang Pham, 49, of St. Louis, with distribution of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and a misdemeanor charge of patronizing prostitution.

His bond was set at $26,500 with a condition that he surrender his right to prescribe narcotic controlled substances. If convicted, he could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison on each of the drug charges. The misdemeanor carries a maximum punishment of six years in the county jail and a $500 fine.

The doctor was arrested on March 22 at a motel in Bonne Terre.

According to police reports, a Farmington narcotics officer received information from a confidential informant that Pham prescribed her Morphine in June.

The doctor and the woman had an ongoing relationship by text message. She was not a patient. In the messages, he said he would give her controlled substances if she sent him nude pictures of her and had sex with him.

Police say Pham sent a prescription to the woman for Percocet, which was then collected by police.

Police say Pham traveled from St. Louis to a Bonne Terre motel “in anticipation of having sex with (the woman) for the prescriptions.” Pham was asked to bring controlled substances and he said he would bring Viagra and Xanax.

While Pham was trying to check into a room at the motel, police arrested him. They searched him and found four Viagra pills and seven Xanax pills.

At the county jail, he was read his Miranda rights. Police say Pham admitted he gave the woman Morphine and Percocet. He said she was a friend and had never been a patient. He said he went to the hotel to meet her and had an expectation of having sex with her.

The Farmington officer was assisted in the investigation by the Mineral Area Drug Task Force and the Bonne Terre Police Department.

Teresa Ressel is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 179 or at [email protected].


Copyright © 2009 Daily Journal Online. All rights reserved.


http://www.dailyjournalonline....3bc1b82884617432.txt

 

[Guest]

An OD doesn't even make it into the local Fish Wrapper any more; too many other "Goodies" to report, because we have had an increase in the number of shootings which are always more important to the media. Even if they are shootings involving the very same group of Dopers that are ODing left and right. Computers are supposed to make our life easier and they do if they are used by the right people. Unfortunately, the Doctors are the ones watching the Computers because they are "trained" to know the generic names etc.

Not long ago one of the Doctors working in the little Clinic the Bride and I have been going to for many years got caught but it seems he'd been doing the Racket for a number of Years. He was writing Scripts for another Doctor and the other Doctor was doing the same for him. It's my guess that when he gets out in a couple of years, if he does any jail time at all, he'll still have plenty of $$$ to retire on and will remain a very Happy Camper. Whoever said "Crime doesn't pay" never met a Drug Dealing Doctor.

These guys/gals have to be a very special kind of Sick-o and the "Penalty" should fit the crime and these types should have a very special Plot in the Prison Cemetery as should ALL the Drug Dealers. Until the Penalties start catching up with lots and lots of these types the problems will just continue and continue.

 

[bettis1]

From the legitimate doctor's point of view, it is often difficult to monitor. I once had an employee who stole a prescription pad (they were kept secured from the patients in the treatment rooms) and wrote herself a script. The pharmacist recognized that it didn't look like my writing and notified me. I called the employee in to conference and told her that she could lose her license to practice her profession. I then called the local police department and spoke with the Sgt. in the narcotics dept. and told him that I was sending her down to speak to him. I made her bring his business card back to me to know that she had actually followed through. Apparently, the Sgt. put the fear into her for the time being, but years later I learned from another colleague that she had done the same thing in his practice.

I recall that when I first went into practice it seemed like I was always getting midnight calls from someone in pain with a "good" story. Over the years those diminished as I became more proficient in detecting the cons and the word got out that I wouldn't give them a prescription unless they had been examined in my office. But it is difficult to recall all of the patients that you have treated in years past. Shortly before I retired, I received a late night call from someone requesting some drugs and telling me that he had been seen several months before. Fortunately, I was able to access my computer records from home and I told him that I had never seen him. He mumbled something and stammered that his wife must have given him the wrong doctor's name and hung up. Practitioners know what drugs are adequate for the conditions that they are treating. When the patient tells you that such and such a drug doesn't work for them and that they need another specific drug, it sends up a red flag.

Several times I have had people come to the office on an emergency basis with the story that they were just passing through and were in the process of having a procedure done (usually a root canal or an extraction) in another city but the treatment wasn't completed yet. Clinical and radiographic exams showed that they were telling the truth...the tooth was partially treated, but in fact, the patient had stopped the treatment to maintain that condition so they could go from office to office and play on the sympathy of another doctor who did an exam. They tolerated the pain from the condition to allow them to continue to get medications.

I can probably count on one hand the times which I prescribed more than a dozen pain pills at one time. In my profession if the pain hasn't subsided in that time, there is some other condition which needs to be addressed. Obviously, for those folks who are dealing with a terminal disease process, long term medication is indicated but for the usual patient, I see very little reason to prescribe 50-100 pain pills at a time. The various State Boards try to monitor excessive prescribers but most of these Boards have very few investigators on their staffs. When the doctors are caught, there is a reluctance to cancel their licenses in the first offenses. Usually there is a suspension of the narcotics and/or professional license for a period and a fine/reprimand. It seems to take a number of offenses or a particularly egregious violation to have the license revoked.

Bob

 

[glypnir]

Charlie, how much do you think that it's depression related to the economy?

Do these seem to be deliberate overdoses or just, as others have suggested, just dopey ones?

Or of course, a combination - things got more depressing so they took more drugs, not knowing it was going kill them.

I'm not making excuses for them, just trying to figure out the reason for the increase.

My wife's mother died of a drug overdose - before I met my wife.

But it was deliberate. She was a fiercely indepedent woman whose MS was about to progress to the point where she wouldn't be able to care for herself.

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by bettis1: It seems to take a number of offenses or a particularly egregious violation to have the license revoked. Bob

It has been my observation that this is very much like the Lawyers who sit on the Ethics Boards for those in their profession.

And, I've known a number of Judges who would let Drunks slide over and over again simply because they were in the same boat - being Drunks themselves.

I've also long suspected that one of the reasons the "Courts" set the Rules for handling prisoners/inmates to what is truly a ridicules level is because they figure that "their day" is coming!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Originally posted by bettis1:
From the letimate doctor's point of view, it is often difficult to monitor. I once had an employee who stole a prescription pad (they were kept secured from the patients in the treatment rooms) and wrote herself a script. The pharmacist recognized that it didn't look like my writing and notified me. I called the employee in to conference and told her that she could lose her license to practice her profession. I then called the local police department and spoke with the Sgt. in the narcotics dept. and told him that I was sending her down to speak to him. I made her bring his business card back to me to know that she had actually followed through. Apparently, the Sgt. put the fear into her for the time being, but years later I learned from another colleague that she had done the same thing in his practice.

I recall that when I first went into practice it seemed like I was always getting midnight calls from someone in pain with a "good" story. Over the years those diminished as I became more proficient in detecting the cons and the word got out that I wouldn't give them a prescription unless they had been examined in my office. But it is difficult to recall all of the patients that you have treated in years past. Shortly before I retired, I received a late night call from someone requesting some drugs and telling me that he had been seen several months before. Fortunately, I was able to access my computer records from home and I told him that I had never seen him. He mumbled something and stammered that his wife must have given him the wrong doctor's name and hung up. Practitioners know what drugs are adequate for the conditions that they are treating. When the patient tells you that such and such a drug doesn't work for them and that they need another specific drug, it sends up a red flag.

Several times I have had people come to the office on an emergency basis with the story that they were just passing through and were in the process of having a procedure done (usually a root canal or an extraction) in another city but the treatment wasn't completed yet. Clinical and radiographic exams showed that they were telling the truth...the tooth was partially treated, but in fact, the patient had stopped the treatment to maintain that condition so they could go from office to office and play on the sympathy of another doctor who did an exam. They tolerated the pain from the condition to allow them to continue to get medications.

I can probably count on one hand the times which I prescribed more than a dozen pain pills at one time. In my profession if the pain hasn't subsided in that time, there is some other condition which needs to be addressed. Obviously, for those folks who are dealing with a terminal disease process, long term medication is indicated but for the usual patient, I see very little reason to prescribe 50-100 pain pills at a time. The various State Boards try to monitor excessive prescribers but most of these Boards have very few investigators on their staffs. When the doctors are caught, there is a reluctance to cancel their licenses in the first offenses. Usually there is a suspension of the narcotics and/or professional license for a period and a fine/reprimand. It seems to take a number of offenses or a particularly egregious violation to have the license revoked.

Bob

you're not a legitimate doctor...you're a DENTIST