Pill Mills Kill

There is an epidemic of prescription pill abuse growing in our society. Instead of teenagers abusing alcohol and marijuana, many are abusing prescription pills because of the sense of “euphoria” they get from them. Personally, two out of my five best friends from high school have been addicted to pain killers and I know of many others in my community. The majority of the addicts don’t get their hands on these drugs legally, rather from drug dealers or illegitimate doctors.

Buying drugs such as Percocet or Oxycodone off the streets leaves my friends broke but makes a ton of money for the drug dealer who sold them for three times the amount they paid. I was enlightened by my friend who lives in Florida to a much cheaper way to feed her addiction. By visiting the independent pain-management centers where shady doctors prescribe and dispense powerful narcotics inappropriately.

These centers are referred to as “pill mills” and are known for prescribing patients with narcotics for non-existent medical reasons. Many of these so-called patients are drug addicts or drug dealers who sell the pills on the street. Pill Mills are common in the state of Florida but are recently sprouting up in the states of Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Texas. They may only be located in these states but they are causing problems all over the country. Do you think the pills stay in these states? No. They are sold in other areas where they can get the highest price, often right in your own community.

In a period of nine months in a small Kentucky county, nine died by overdosing on pain medications obtained from pain clinics in Florida. With 1 in 100 people dying from a drug overdose each day in the United States this should be a problem that more people are aware and concerned about. I urge you to spread the awareness of where illegally sold prescription pills come from so that someone you know doesn’t become part of the statistic.