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Customers at one of the Florida pain clinics run by Jeff and Chris George wait their turn in chairs on the sidewalk in surveillance footage shot by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office.
The prescription painkiller business was booming in 2009, making millionaires of Chris and Jeff George, twin brothers who operated several pain clinics in South Florida. Unfortunately for them, their customers had a tendency to die, and not always in a subtle fashion.
In November of that year, three customers were on their way to a George brothers’ clinic when the driver tried to weave her Toyota Camry through the lowered arms of a train crossing. The car was struck by commuter train going 79 mph. The driver and a passenger were ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene. The third occupant died six months later.
An associate of the Georges who read about the accident in the paper called Chris George to break the news. “Did it say they were pain clinic people?” George asked.
It didn’t, but the Roxicodone scattered through the backseat of the crumpled car, and on both sides of the train tracks, made it obvious to investigators that this threesome from Tennessee didn’t come to Fort Lauderdale to get tans. (Roxicodone is a brand name for one of the prescription painkillers that contain oxycodone, the opioid that has a chemical structure like heroin, with roughly the same addictive qualities.)
Chris George worried that the accident would bring police scrutiny to the family’s pain clinics. To avoid situations like this, he and his workers coached their customers in keeping a low profile. “You’ve got to be an idiot to get hit by a train,” he complained.
What George didn’t know is that federal and local investigators had already targeted him and his brother – after oxycodone distributed at George clinics was found near the dead bodies of dozens who overdosed -- and were listening to that very phone call.
Chris George, left, and Jeff George, in police booking photos broadcast by a local TV station in Florida.
Two years later the conversation would appear in a federal indictment charging the Georges with racketeering and drug trafficking for operating what federal officials say was the largest, most sophisticated painkiller trafficking organization in the country.
Chris and Jeff George, both of whom have pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them and reported to prison last month to begin serving long sentences, declined to comment for this series, citing concerns that their remarks would add to their legal difficulties. Federal agents and prosecutors also refused interview requests, due to related cases that remain open. The information in these articles was gleaned from court records, interviews with associates of the Georges and informants, many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
Fueling an oxy epidemic
South Florida -- and the Georges, in particular -- were the vanguard of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls an “epidemic” of oxycodone addiction and death -- one that had attacked America more suddenly than any drug has before.
In 2008, prescription painkiller overdoses killed 14,800 Americans. In 2009, when the George clinics were at their peak, opioid abuse propelled a ghastly rise in the number of drug-related deaths nationwide. That year, 37,485 Americans died from narcotics overdoses -- a figure that for the first time surpassed the number of deaths from car accidents.
“The toll our nation’s prescription drug abuse epidemic has taken in communities nationwide is devastating, and Florida is ground zero,” said Obama drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, speaking at a press conference last year.
In 2009, Florida was one of 15 states that lacked a prescription drug tracking system, which enabled buyers to fill overlapping prescriptions without being flagged as drug abusers. That made the state susceptible to abuse on a grand scale.
The Georges were not rags-to-riches drug dealers. They were born to a wealthy home builder named John George and grew up in Wellington, an ultra-affluent community known for its polo grounds and celebrity residents, including Bruce Springsteen.
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South Florida was one of the first regions to be struck by the bursting of the housing bubble. By 2006, when the George family’s Majestic Homes was the featured builder on an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” the business was already in a tailspin. John George said that buyers were breaking their contracts because the homes were depreciating so rapidly, causing construction delays. Other buyers then complained, he said, earning Majestic an “F” from the Better Business Bureau.
To cut costs, George closed the Majestic Homes office on Florida’s west coast run by Chris George, who moved back east across Alligator Alley to his native Palm Beach County. When he arrived, he soon learned that his brother, Jeff, had found an enterprise more lucrative than home building.
Jeff George, who has the broad shoulders and bull neck of an avid weightlifter, was selling steroids online. A physician wrote prescriptions to the buyers without having conducted a physical examination, according to a criminal indictment. That made the practice illegal.
While moving through this black market, Jeff George made the acquaintance of a physician named William Overstreet. Versed in the nuances of Florida’s health care regulations, Overstreet suggested to George that the real money was in oxycodone, court records indicate.
Overstreet was an authority on this subject. Based on his generosity dispensing pain pills, local cops nicknamed him the “Candy Man,” according to the criminal indictment of the Georges.
With Overstreet’s coaching, Jeff George opened South Florida Pain Center in early 2008 in a small shopping plaza north of Fort Lauderdale. Brother Chris soon joined the business, according to court records.
Recruiting physicians on Craigslist
To find physicians, the Georges posted Craigslist ads that promised generous pay. Job interviews were straightforward: the Georges wanted to know whether the physician was licensed by the state and registered with the DEA to prescribe controlled substances. Most important, according to the indictment, that physician had to be willing to prescribe with a heavy hand – including a drug “cocktail” of oxycodone and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. Users often take oxy and Xanax simultaneously – a combination that killed actor Heath Ledger in 2008.
The doctors who collaborated with the Georges had financial incentives to risk their licenses.
Dr. Patrick Graham, for instance, maintained a successful plastic surgery practice in Boca Raton for decades, until he discovered that an office manager had been embezzling the clinic’s profits, according to friends who wrote letters to the court on his behalf. By the time he found out, it was too late to save the practice. Without enough savings to retire comfortably, and too proud to ask his professionally accomplished siblings for help, the 64-year-old Graham began working at a George clinic in July 2009.
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He had misgivings. In one recorded call detailed in court records, Graham was asked by Chris George to turn over some of the oxycodone he had ordered, presumably so that George could sell it to street dealers. Said Graham: “I think the idea is that I’ll do this one time, but I don’t like playing around with this stuff. This is just not something that you (do) in a medical setting.” (Graham, who was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the Georges’ operation, declined to comment for this article.)
Skeptical physicians were assured that pain clinic practice had been vetted by attorneys and was entirely legal. Each clinic was structured to insulate the workers from prosecution and to maximize the flow of painkillers, according to the indictment.
The Georges’ pain clinic customers were directed first to a mobile MRI unit, parked behind a West Palm Beach strip club. Since every individual’s spinal column has differences in alignment, the scans were used to support diagnoses that “irregularities” were causing the patient’s pain, a claim too subjective to dispute, according to the indictment.
Patients were required to submit urine samples to demonstrate that they weren’t abusers. But the George clinics looked the other way when patients swapped clean urine, a practice that was so common that the clinic toilets would often become clogged after patients tried to flush condoms and containers they’d smuggled into the restroom, according to the indictment. Even when the urinalysis showed the presence of narcotics, lab technicians (many of whom were friends of the Georges) waved the patients through, directing them to other clinics run by the Georges for a physician’s exam, it said.
Although “exam” may not be the best word. It was more like a physician’s glance. Undercover investigators said pain clinic doctors devoted an average of three minutes to each patient, ignoring the results of the MRIs, failing to inquire about the patient’s medical history and neglecting to ask the questions necessary to make an objective diagnosis, according to testimony by agents in DEA hearings.
To save physicians’ hands from cramping, they were given stamps with which to “sign” prescriptions.
Said Michael Aruta, one of the fastest-moving physicians: “These hillbillies don’t give a s--- about their health.” Powerful painkillers, he added, are “all they’re here for,” the indictment said. (Aruta, who was sentenced to six years in prison, declined to comment for this article.)
Having received their scripts, customers were guided to pharmacies controlled by the George family. Chris George’s wife, Dianna, volunteered to help dispense the drugs. Given the dangers of mixing a deadly dose of medication, pharmacists are trained to take specific safety measures. Dianna’s previous job was dancing at a strip club.
Efficiency becomes a problem
The efficiency of the George clinics soon became a problem. Shortly after the South Florida Pain Center opened in 2008, the brothers outgrew it. Jeff George opened East Coast Pain in West Palm Beach and Hallandale Pain in the South Broward County city of Hallandale Beach. In summer 2008 Chris George opened a clinic he called American Pain in Boca Raton. But the voracious appetites of his pill mill customers made it necessary to find an even bigger location, which is what led him in 2009 to launch the new American Pain in a 20,000 square-foot building in Lake Worth, near a mostly immigrant neighborhood. Immigrants don’t call cops, George said during a recorded phone call.
American Pain was the biggest single clinic in the country, a Super Wal-Mart of addiction. Investigators say that the five most generous script-writing doctors saw 500 patients per day and, at up to $100 per patient, earned nearly $2 million in a year’s time.
Said Dr. Graham during a recorded conversation with Chris George: “You make a lot more money doing this than doing plastic surgery.” Indeed, George was heard bragging that physicians who worked for him made an average of $35,000 per week.
The parking lot and surrounding streets were lined with cars bearing plates from Kentucky and Tennessee, hotbeds for painkiller abuse. To make it less conspicuous, the clinic instructed patients to park in lots several blocks away, where they’d be picked up by a shuttle van and delivered to the clinic’s front door.
To keep the painkillers coming by the truckload, the Georges also needed to deceive the pharmaceutical suppliers. Investigators recorded a conversation where George told an employee, “Remember, we’re lying about how many (clinic customers) are out of state. If you give them our real dispensing log it’s going to show that everybody’s from out of state.”
For drug dealers in states like Kentucky or Tennessee, the 1,000-mile trek to South Florida paid for itself, and it became common for them to fill a van with people willing to pose as patients with chronic pain. On average, clinic patrons (or their sponsors) paid about $5 per 30-mg dose of oxycodone, which they could sell in Appalachia for $30. Just one of the George brothers pharmacies could dole out over 10,000 doses of 30-mg oxy in a single day.
In addition to the millions of oxy doses the clinics administered over the counter, thousands more were diverted by George employees to street traffickers, who paid cash, according to investigators’ filings.
The grip of oxy addiction guaranteed a loyal customer base. The more patients the clinics served, the more customers lusted for another fix. According to a DEA agent’s testimony in an administrative hearing, it was common to see 30 patrons in a queue before American Pain opened at 7 a.m., many of them itching compulsively, dressed in ragged clothing and chain-smoking cigarettes. The most woebegone addicts had track marks on their arms and appeared to be under the influence of drugs, the agent said.
Security workers cruised the clinic grounds in golf carts, steering customers to the clinic door and punishing those inclined to loiter. At Jeff George’s clinics, a friend, Derik Nolan, became an enforcer, delivering beatings to patrons who did anything that could attract police, such as snorting the drugs outside the clinics or handing them to a dealer. Proud of his role, Nolan was heard on the wire boasting, “I’m like the f----ing underboss here. I’m the one who knows all (Jeff’s) dirty little secrets and the f----ing one that gets called when s--- needs to get done.”
Nolan who pleaded guilty to his role in managing the pill mills and was sentenced in December to 14 years in prison, referred questions to his attorney, who declined to comment.
As patients jumped ahead of others in line, fights broke out. It was also common for patients to have drug-induced overdoses and seizures. On the day after the train killed the group from Tennessee, another clinic customer was found dead on the side of a South Florida highway.
John George, father of the two brothers, says that the clinics were operating within the law and that any illegal activity that occurred there was the fault of rogue physicians. He did not have a role in the clinics and was not charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the case.
Burning dollar bills in barrels
The deluge of cash became a problem. Employees could be heard on the wiretaps complaining about cash drawers being stuffed to the top. It wasn’t worth keeping dollar bills, so those were separated and then burned by the barrel. Bigger bills were stuffed into garbage bags, then hauled to a bank. Chris George’s wife, Dianna, accepted the chore of making these rather suspicious deposits, although not without grousing that she’d become her husband’s “money mule.”
Other cash-filled bags went to the home of the Georges’ mother, Denice Haggerty, who stacked it in safes in her attic. At one point, says a friend of the Georges, there were 14 safes in the attic, each containing $1 million. Haggerty, who divorced John George in 1988, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The cash piled up despite the brothers’ free-spending ways. Jeff George bought a monster truck, multiple Lamborghinis and a Mercedes Saks 5th Avenue Edition. There were only five of those cars made, and George liked his so much that when he totaled it, he bought himself another, according to a friend.
Jeff George assembled a small navy, including a 36-foot racing vessel, a 39-foot sports boat and two yachts, 38 and 55 feet in length. He also bought the shopping plaza housing his favorite strip club. The purchases were a convenient way to launder money, according to the indictment.
As the Georges’ painkiller empire grew, it attracted enemies, both from within and without. The indictment cites recorded phone calls in which Chris George and Derik Nolan threatened violence against other pain clinic operators they perceived to be encroaching on the Georges’ turf.
The Georges learned to suspect treachery even from their friends. A roommate of Jeff George named Robert Eddy was thought to have stolen some $500,000 in clinic funds. According to federal filings and testimony in pre-trial hearings, the brothers had Eddy handcuffed then brought to a vacant home owned by Jeff George. To intimidate Eddy, Jeff George allegedly fired a gun just inches from Eddy’s head, according to the indictment. Eventually, he was released unharmed. Chris George allegedly gave Eddy $10,000 to keep quiet about the incident, although court filings indicate the brothers remained dubious about Eddy’s loyalty.
The incident may have made Jeff George paranoid about his other friends and clinic associates. According to the indictment, he put employees through lie detector tests. Chris George had his clinic regularly swept for listening devices.
They even had doubts about whether they could trust the man who introduced them to the painkiller business, Dr. William Overstreet. Multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation say that the Georges had a dispute with the so-called “Candy Man” over money.
Overstreet left the pain clinic business around 2009, moving to Panama. Shortly thereafter, Overstreet’s car reportedly flew off a cliff, killing him. The U.S. Consulate confirmed the death of an American by that name, though it refused to give a date or the manner of death, citing privacy rules.
Jeff George made multiple trips to Panama and Costa Rica while the pain clinics were in business, but there’s no evidence he was there at the time of Overstreet’s death, and there are no filings in the drug trafficking case to suggest that he had any role in it.
Despite the internal conflicts, the brothers’ clinics were thriving like never before in early 2010, having made nearly $1 million in a single week in late February. But on the morning of March 3, they were awakened by urgent phone calls: The clinics were being raided by a DEA task force.
Even as masked agents emptied file cabinets and hauled off boxes of pills, clinic customers walked past them to the front desk, demanding new prescriptions. At the same time, agents were swarming through the George brothers’ homes and counting the millions of dollars squirreled away in their mother’s attic.
'I'll take the fall'
Jeff George managed to keep a stiff upper lip. When a reporter for the Palm Beach Post called, he said, “It’s unfortunate for the patients that they have nowhere to go now. They are the ones that are really going to be affected the hardest by this.”
Meanwhile, Chris George, who spent the morning driving in his SUV between clinics, was panicking. The feds were listening on the wire when he told his wife, Dianna, “I’m f----ed.” He added, “Babe, I don’t know. Maybe I should just kill myself.”
Said Dianna George, “I’ll take the fall for everything, OK?”
But perhaps there was another way out. With investigators needing months to sift through the medical records they collected at the George clinics, it would take time before the Georges were formally charged with crimes.
In pretrial hearings, prosecutors alleged that Chris George discussed with an informant named Zack the murder of Robert Eddy, the former friend who had been handcuffed and threatened after it was believed he stole $500,000. Nothing came of the alleged plot, and Chris George was not charged with attempted murder.
But he may have deployed another strategy for deterring witnesses. In October 2010, Chris George got a tattoo on his lower leg: a rat, its lifeless body hanging from a noose. A friend took a picture of the tattoo, then texted it to a witness in the case.
Prosecutors moved swiftly, hauling George into court and citing the rat tattoo as evidence that the clinic kingpin was a threat to government witnesses and should be jailed without bond. A federal judge agreed.
Having apparently exhausted all other ideas, in 2011 the George brothers finally agreed to testify against the doctors they hired at the clinics. That, as well as guilty pleas to racketeering charges, would spare them from going to trial and risking a sentence that would put them in prison for the rest of their lives.
Jeff George came to his January sentencing hearing dressed in a double-breasted suit, hands clasped contritely in front of him. His hair, frosted at the tips when he began the clinic business, was now streaked with gray. “I realize what I did was 100 percent wrong,” he told the judge. “I take 100 percent responsibility.”
The judge sentenced him to 15 1/2 years. George has also pleaded guilty to a state case of murder in the case of a patient named Joey Bartolucci, who died by overdosing on oxycodone he received at East Coast Pain clinic. The sentence in that case may bring George’s total prison stay to 20 years.
Chris George, who also pleaded guilty to racketeering, was sentenced to 17 1/2 years. In all, 26 of the brothers’ associates will serve time, including Chris George’s wife Dianna and the Georges’ mother, Denice Haggerty, both for more than a year. Of the nine doctors indicted in the federal case, seven have entered guilty pleas -- the first time that doctors have been convicted in a “pill mill” racketeering case. The remaining two appear likely to go to trial, currently set for August.
20 million pills in three years
During the nearly three years that Georges’ four primary clinics operated, investigators estimated that they churned out roughly 20 million doses of oxycodone.
Based on what they learned from listening to wiretaps, federal prosecutors believe that the Georges made at least $40 million through the pain clinic and other fraudulent enterprises. In the raid, the government seized about $5 million in cash and property worth $9 million. The rest of the money is still unaccounted for.
It’s much harder for the government to calculate the human casualties of the George clinics. By cross-referencing files from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, investigators found that the George’s drugs had a role in 53 overdose deaths in Florida alone. Considering that 80 percent to 90 percent of the patients came from out of state, the number of deaths that occurred outside of Florida must be far greater. As a federal prosecutor noted at one hearing, “We don’t know how many kids died behind barns in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia” -- the Appalachian states home to the Georges’ most loyal customers.
The brothers may have known that their drug-dealing in Florida wasn’t going to last. Thanks to new state laws regulating the amount of oxycodone a single doctor can purchase, sales of the drug declined 97 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to figures cited by Obama drug czar Kerlikowske at a congressional hearing on March 1.
In the Georges’ former base of Palm Beach County, the number of pain clinics likewise plummeted by 65 percent in the past year, according to Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who said that the remaining clinics are either under investigation or are legitimate practices.
These developments may have played a role in the Georges’ interest in taking their enterprise national. At the time they were raided, the brothers had recently launched a clinic in Kennesaw, Ga. and were scouting locations in Texas and St. Louis.
Considering that the Georges’ physicians ranked among the nation’s biggest oxycodone purchasers, the bust of their South Florida clinics played a major role in reversing both local and national trends of rapidly increasing painkiller abuse.
Despite the hard fall taken by his sons, who began serving their prison sentences on April 27, real estate developer John George still maintains that they were victims of physicians who broke the law. “We had every indication that what (the clinics) were doing was perfectly legal,” he said. “My sons aren’t doctors. They counted on the doctors and their staff to do their work correctly, but they didn’t.”
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Their father is in complete denial! One wonders why the drug makers of the country are not more closely scrutinized as to just who they are selling to and just how much. Perhaps the Czar should begin listening inon their plans for enriching their investors. Drugs make money, lots of money for everyone except the poor sap who thinks that Xanax and Oxycodone are a great cocktail and good for your health.
P.S. There are no pain killers, never has been. There are pain masqueraders, drugs that hide the pain. Pain stops when it stops and no one drug cal completely stop pain. Junkies never figure that one out.
If you were so miserable you were desperate, you wouldn't be so cavalier about refering to all these people as "junkies." It shows massive ignorance.
These men should be admired! They were entrepreneurs! They were rich! They created jobs! [/sarcasm]
I disagree that there are no legitimate pain clinics. There are non-drug ways to cope with chronic pain, like acupuncture, biofeedback and hypnosis.
Those who use powerful pain-killing drugs quickly become addicted and desensitized to their effects. They also become more sensitive to pain, ironically.
Most of the 'patients' at the George brothers' clinics were not pain patients, they were oxy junkies. They chose to take narcotics and no one forced them to make that choice.
It's a choice we all make, to live under the influence of drugs or to live without them.
This was a very well written article. John George is not in denial, he's just a good liar. The boys (jeff and chris) were too stupid to keep a low profile while selling drugs. They went out of their way to harass their neighbors and shoot birds at cops. How the DA could cut a deal with jeff is beyond logic. The deal was that jeff was supposed to cooperate with the law, but he still hasn't told them where he hid the money. If he sold 20M pills at $5 each, that's $100M. I'd say he isn't cooperating very well and should go away for life. I personally saw jeff george dragging his GF from a moving vehicle. Some family man he is. What a guy?
And the end result will be, the judge will slap their wrists and give them a light sentence of which they'll only serve a short portion of before they're released for good behavior, this while a kid who got caught with a pot plant will get the book thrown at them.
I'm currently undergoing pain management treatment; part is pain killing medication but also the idea is that it's temporary in lieu of seeing others, orthopedists, neurologists and spine docs to eventually fix what can be. If not able to fix, then the discussion will come as to whether or not remain on pain medicine.
These two give pain management a bad name. Here in Ohio, you're given your prescription with the knowledge that the doc can call, give you 24 hrs. to come in for a pill count or pee test, and you're registered through the computer network.... you can't see more than one pain management doc, and you can't get other pain med scripts filled without being flagged. If someone is out to abuse the system and drugs, they may get away with it for a few months, but they'll get caught.
Seems that in some states it is lack of oversight and legislation regarding addictive drugs that's the real problem; when asked to restrain one's self where millions of dollars can be made just because 'it's the right thing to do' is asking too much of an individual. Most people do get addicted to their pain meds after a period of time, but as in Ohio it only affects you and is a choice and is monitored. And, many paitents do need them to do every day, ordinary tasks taken for granted by those without chronic pain. Again, at least here, if you don't have your pills for count, fail a urine test then you're not only out of that clinic, but are flagged as such and other docs won't take you in, either. Don't really know why it's not that way across the board.
“My sons aren’t doctors. They counted on the doctors and their staff to do their work correctly, but they didn’t.”
It's interesting how easy it is to deceive oneself.
This country is going to h e ll in a nutshell. SO MANY "STUPID:" people! What else can you call these pill poppers? These same people will vote for this uncaring, do-nothing, money-spending, Obama.
@!$%#ing florida
DAH Toyota? With 3 people in it,(can anyone say cement truck) any Ford would have beaten that train with plenty of room to spare no doubt, Thank you Ford UAW!!!!! @marilee;' RIGHT ON!!!!
When I saw their picture I was like "Yes! The 2 idiots from the Jersey Shore got arrested! GUITO DOWN!"...then I realised that they weren't The Situation and the other guy...
In other news, alcohol and tobacco related deaths continue to be an obvious hypocrisy.
Being a person with chronic pain, broken back now fused from T10-S1 you people can believe in your acupuncture, hypnosis and electrical shock simulators. I have tried two of the three I listed and go zero results from them. When the pain starts reaching a certain point I take a pain killer to get it under control. Until you live it you have no right telling someone who does they are no more than a junkie. My pain management specialist gives me a certain amount of pain medication and randomly tests me for anything else. They are great pain management doctors out there, one needs to go to one that is affiliated with an actual hospital... these things the Georges were running are no more than legalized drug dealers.
@ kaybeetoys, biofeedback, acupuncture and others do not work for a majority of people. Sure there are other ways to cope with pain, but a prescription drug should be a persons LAST resort. ALL prescription drugs have a risk of DEATH!!
@ Yankee, those people ARE junkies. When you sit in a plastic chair waiting to only get meds, then yeah, your a junkie. I seriously doubt they were given the proper guidance on the pills they were taking.
I suffer severe migraines (2-3) a week and have tried over 40 different prescription drugs since 1991. Prescription drugs are LAB made by men or women and have never been fully tested and cause damage that is just now being found out. Everyday there is a recall of some prescription or otc drug. There are advertisements on tv and the radio asking for people if they've taken a host of drugs, from birth control, pain killers, diabetes drugs. They are ALL bad for you. With prescription pills you are limited by the amount of prescribed dosage you can take in a 24 hr period. That why I switched to Medical Cannabis. It is 100% all natural. I can medicate 24/7 without having to remember when I took my last pill, or if I take this pill, will it kill because I took too many? Cannabis has NEVER killed anyone from overdosing or allergic reactions. Cannabis has NO physical or chemical dependency attached to it. Nor will Cannabis affect your CNS like Alcohol or Prescription drugs do. I can go to bed high as a kite on medical cannabis and don't have to worry about my breathing stopping while sleeping. Under alcohol if you drink too much, its lights out, forever, same with too many pills.
Keep allowing Big Pharma, Big Oil and Big Religion to rule America and this kind of crap will continue. ALL Doctors are just glorified pill pushers. They kowtow to the drug reps who push "free trial" samples and then the ball starts rolling. Doctors also have the ability to buy bulk quantities of drugs and pass them out in their offices.
Legalize Cannabis FOR all over 21.. Allow people to self medicate with a 100% safe, all natural medicine that even the US Government has studied for over 40 years @ the Univ. of Mississippi.
Americans need to wake up to the severe dangers of ALL Prescription drugs, even OTCs and demandd a change. Prescription pill addiction is an accepted policy in America, even though is market created. Americans have an average of 10-11 Prescriptions per person each year. We spend $350 Billion on Prescription drugs each year. Most of that is in diabetes drugs or pain pills.. We are killing ourselves with the drugs we take. We pollute the h20 supply by flushing the expired pills down the drain. We are causing increased cancer rates, increase rates of puberty and other abnormalities across the population due to the overuse of pharmaceuticals.
No, the father has the typical poor little rich kid mentality. My kids can do no wrong, its the other guy that was a bad influence. He's probably been hiring attorneys and bailing his sons out of everything since they were teens and literally letting them get away with murder. He should be in jail for bad parenting and not teaching his kids accountability for their actions. His "its not your fault" mentality has produced human scum. I'm sick of these rich kids hiding behind daddy's coattails every time they do wrong and daddy standing and saying it not their fault.
Maybe these people who are taking the Oxy have very low tolerance levels in order to become addicted. I had knee surgery and was given 30 Oxy to last me during my recovery which took 6 weeks. The pain was so bad I was popping 4 Oxy a day but they weren't doing anything for the pain. I have always had a high tolerance for drugs and ended up giving up the Oxy after taking about 10 of them because they weren't doing a damn thing for the pain and didn't want to end up taking them all with no added benefit, finally tossed them by flushing down the toilet, since they did no damn good and didn't want them just sitting around. For me Oxy didn't work and didn't find them in anyway addictive....people who become adicted to this are just weak willed and should just suffer through the pain insread of being numbed by these drugs.
article said arrangements were structured so the cinincs were shielded against crinimal liability. Probably took a lawyer to do that. I'd like to see lawyers on the indictement too.
I hate seeing articles like this because it unfairly brands all people who go to pain management clinics as drug abusers. This is definitely not the case!!! There are many people who unfortunately have to deal with chronic pain. For many, the only way to control the pain and keep it tolerable enough so that they can function is to take narcotic pain killers. These people are not junkies or drug abusers, they are people with real medical problems that take these drugs for legitimate reasons. Most respectable pain management doctors have their patient sign a contract with them. Under this contract the patient agrees that they will not attempt to get pain medication from any other doctors. They also agree to being subject to random testing by the doctor to ensure that they are taking the medicine they are being prescribed, and only that medicine. This way the doctor can be assured that the patient is actually taking the medication and not selling it as well as be assured that they are not also taking street drugs or getting other prescription drugs from elsewhere that could result in an overdose or other medical complication. If a patient is found to be non-compliant with the contract the doctor will drop the patient immediately and will inform any other doctor who calls to get copies of patient records what occurred. There are many responsible pain management doctors out there who only prescribe to patient that have legitimate needs and monitor there patients closely. Outfits like these clinics being run by the George brothers make it that much harder for these legitimate doctors to operate and causes them a lot of extra expense do to the scrutiny and audits they are constantly under from the DEA. It also makes these doctors suspicious of every new patient that walks through the door for fear they could be a DEA agent posing as a patient to try and catch them doing something wrong. It can also cause a delay in patients getting the help they need, even if they were referred for pain management by a surgeon or other doctor, while the pain management doctor runs them through their own test, often duplicating those done by the referring doctor (at significant expense), to gather their own supporting documentation before issuing any prescriptions.
Son, people taking Oxy often mix it with other drugs and THEN become addicted as well.
Their father should be in Prison for being either a total moron or for taking up for his drug dealer kids. The sad thing is the number of years the boys got. They should be treated just like a Mexican drug lord. Everyone involved knew it was an illegal business. How many legit businesses make so much cash they burn dollar bills and haul the rest to the bank in trash sacks (not to mention the mother hiding cash in the attic).
I hope some of the families of the dead addicts sue the hell out of the boys/mother, etc.
not ONE rush limbaugh joke? come on guys!
lol @ zaruski. It was in Florida, I wonder if Rush will comment again on how those that abuse drugs should go to jail?
Gee. It worked so well for Rush Limbaugh!
Thanks JD it does brand those of us that have no other alternative for pain relief. Any opiod has the major chance of abuse. But the alternatives are not there for chronic pain such as spinal stenosis. Surgery is not always the answer in many cases.
I have an idea, let people decide for themselves! We have so many enforcment agencies saving people from themselves how can we possibly ever come to physcal sanity. Make sure there is help for people who want it and stop telling people not to abuse things. The crime level in our country would plummet, our need for law enforcment would plummet and the abuse rate would stay close to the same. If they want drugs, they will find them.
Give Pharmacies the ability to track use for the record and allow people to ask for prescriptions they need, making a doctors visit to get NASONEX is freaking a waiste of money and drives up cost of Health Care.
Drug addiction has destroyed many good people for thousands of years. It is a plague on mankind that rears it's ugly head (in epic proportions) every third generation or so. The outbreak today is the most serious and deadly by far.
The late night and back alley drug deals in the shady parts of town have brazenly been brought into broad daylight in the streets of all of our communities. The former creepy drug dealer was only known by an alias. No one dared speak his true name to face his armed thugs that would silence the snitch forever. He has been replaced by a smiling "physician" that wears a white smock and advertises on billboards to relieve our pain. The thugs that protect him are our own government, the owners of numerous "pain clinics" and the stock holders of ever powerful Big Pharma that deliberately flood our nation with extremely addictive narcotics.
The street addict of just a few decades ago was usually male and the product of dysfunctional families, crime ridden neighborhoods and a life of poverty. Today's addict comes from all walks of life with no gender distinction. He or she is typically young and led to addiction by foolishly believing prescription narcotics are safe for experimentation." I got these from Grandma's medicine cabinet!" Peer pressure, that led many of us to try our first beer, is just as strong today in persuading our children to try their first Lortab with much more devastating consequences.
Today's addict is the clean cut kid that grew up next door. She is brother Bob's teenage daughter that suddenly started stealing and is no longer welcome in our home. He or she is your own kid that spends long hours in the bathroom or on the phone as you keep missing tablespoons, straws, steel scrubbing pads and lighters of all things. Oh yeah, then there is the matter of that missing emergency cash you've always kept under the cookie jar. You're certain that you got your change when you finally broke that fifty at the drug store. Did you lay it on the kitchen table? Where could it be?
If this epidemic has not yet touched your immediate (or extended) family, co-workers, neighbors or close friends, then you are in serious denial. It's time to dig your head out of the sand and do something to end this catastrophe.
Imprisoning all of these once promising kids is not the answer. We could never build enough courthouses, jails and prisons fast enough, even if we could afford them. The answer is to cut the heads off the snakes that led us to this disaster. Then, rehabilitate as many of these lost young souls as possible. Transform them into productive members of society.
Most people with real pain and real conditions do not need to drive 1000 miles to go to a Florida pill clinic. Their doctors perscribe what they need and they go to the pharmacy. The comments about addicts are pretty dead-on when it comes to those in this article.
"Pain" clinics...give me a break, "junkie" clinics is more like it.
You can legalize marijuana anytime America.
Hey Billy,
Been a while, How's things? Get any good parts lately? Haven't seen or heard much from "Heir Macho Dom Negro Amora" Last time was back in 80's with TwoFistedBoarWood in that weird Way you can can.
As for the pain, it still nags my lower back and left leg. Learned to live with it. I was thinking about the folks who got in over their heads with the oxy and all of a sudden had none. That must have placed a serious strain on different communities and their justice systems. Yikes !!! what to do when you pull the monkey off someones back. That is one large family of primates on the loose at one time. Them there Hills must have had some pretty itchy and upset monkey business going on. I know one goodoldboy and his clan headed into cali mountains to grow some catnip, but they didn't talk the walk and were vamosed pronto.
I'm wondering what happen to the 10 - 15 mil that seems to wondered off? un accounted for... I'm guessing those nice boats had floated all the way to the caymans. But how do we know Jeb didn't have anything to do with hanging chads and his swift boat building floatilla...
Sorry for the code folks, private jokes
Why did the prosecutor cut any deal with these guys? Sounds like they had a mountain of evidence against them. Drug dealing on this scale should get you the death sentence not a slap on the wrist. For the doctors too. This is what comes from the lack of regulation and oversight. No small coincidence that this occurred in a red state without the proper laws in place and GOVERNMENT enforcement. My dog has a terrible time dealing with thunder and lightning. My vet prescribed a sedative for him as he did for previous dogs I had. The pills did not work well for this dog for some reason. The vet said if one pill did not work give him two. When I said two did not work he said give him three. Two pills would damn near kill my previous dog and knock him out for hours. Leaving him loopie for the whole next day. This dog could take three with only short term results. Even with all that the vet would not give us more than 10 pills at a time and rightfully so. This was industrial scale drug dealing. A lot of people suspected it or outright knew it.
Isn't it great! The government allows these pain killers, which are nothing short of heroin and cause massive addictions, but outlaw Pot.
Maybe Pot dealers need a better lobbying group they obviously aren't greasing the right people.
The article cites 53 deaths in Florida alone, with likely hundreds more elsewhere. And they spread 20 million doses of this crap... They are murderers, mass murderers, and have destroyed tons more lives They don't deserve to live. What's cruel & unusual is what these guys & their entire organization did. I say lock every last one who was part of this atrocity together in a ventilated room and come back just to take bodies away; maybe this would give some of them a sense of having done some penance for their crimes. They are mass murderers & have spread massive amounts of pain to tons of people.
What is this world coming to? Here is a couple of guys demonstrating their entrepreneurial skills by providing a much needed service to citizens across the country. In fact, their business was so profitable that they needed to expand several times in just a few years. They hired trained professionals that were in dire straights and kept the unemployment roster to a minimum.
I fail to understand the difference between these guys and the federally sanctioned "pill mills". Competition never hurt anybody. In fact they were a very large market share to the drug makers. This is analogous to the auto industry. They were just one link in a very large food chain. However they knew how to turn a profit - deliver products that people want and will use whereas the auto industry produced inefficient junk that nobody wanted.
I can't wait for the movie!
First, I don't wish pain - physical or mental - on anyone (even if pain reduction through pot 'medication' were psychosomatic, I support its medicinal use - and even its recreational use, IF used responsibly [but it's obviously not, as is the case with most intoxicants]). Several posts deserve my response: 1) the absolute ("100%") statement that pot is safe - can anyone honestly say that NONE of those people standing in line for (i.e., oxycodone) started with pot, then neither craved or needed a 'bigger' high? most of those who deal with addiction classify pot as a potential (I softened their statements with this word to avoid absolutism) 'gateway drug;' 2) the quips about Rush Limbaugh and pain killers - while made to brand him as a hypocrite, really serve to prove that no one is immune to addiction (that even their facetiously imputed "great Limbaugh" fell).
tntsdad....
You're money?? I make over 40K a year, dont give me you're "my money" bullsh1t...
marilee 1-9 ,
Only took nine comments to bring in Obama. Not a record, but wow, JUST F*^$)N WOW.
The gateway drug argument is simply ridiculous.
You take cough syrup, you reason "I like that buzz, maybe I'll drink some alcohol"
You drink the Alcohol "Yeahhh, that was great, I wonder what pots like"
You smoke the pot "....@!$%# yeah."
And it goes on and on.
So should we ban cough syrup? Or Alcohol? Maybe we should ban sugar, to stop people from going after sugar highs? I've had morphine, both in hospital and from my dad. I've had alcohol, I've had other things. I'm not addicted to any of it. I have FOND memories, but I don't go out looking for more. The truth is it takes regular use to build a chemical dependence. The difference between a addict and myself is an addict has no other pleasures in life. In other words, their life sucks.
If you want to fight addiction, instead of going after drugs and putting people in jail, we should try and improve the quality of life in our society.
Oh wait, that's "communism" and it's bad. *sigh*
Let's see, southern Florida, oxycodone, illegal presriptions from doctors, really sleazy rich, uneducated people. Does this bring to mind a certain radio performer who is filled with more hot air and hate than any other in the country? Do you think he might have know a few of these doctors?
Why yes it does
Well, I'm gonna take a different tack on this whole thing and suggest we give a Darwin Award to the numbskulls who killed themselves trying to beat the train while racing to the clinic for their next fix.
Purdue, the makers of Oxycodone based drugs, changed the formula in August of 2010, making it much harder to abuse the pills vs. the original formula. That probably had an effect on the amount of oxy sold and/or prescribed. Of course junkie's always figure out a way, but the company just made it more of a challenge for them!
Wasn't the original formula known as cocaine, opium or something like that, and Pudue stole the idea of making tons of money off making tons highly addictive drugs and getting the drugs to the people any way they could. I'm going to read up on my 1600 History to be sure, seems I remember something about a George as well, maybe just coincidental.
Hannah James.....you are totally clueless.
30 mg Roxicodone & OxyContin are 2 different drugs. Perdue changed the OxyContin not the Roxicodone. I don't even know if Purdue makes the Roxi but they probably do. They are nothing but legal drug pushers.
wantnot, When I first read about it they called it hillbilly heroin.
Actually it was not a change in the formula for oxycodone it was a change in the composition of Oxycontin pills. Oxycontin is a brand name for an extended release form of oxycodone. It was frequently abuse by people who would grind up the pills to defeat the extended release properties and get the entire dose in a quick shot. They changed the way in which the pills are made and the way in which the release of the drug controlled to stop this practice. It is still the same drug formula (oxycodone) it is just the release mechanism for the drug getting from the pill into the bloodstream that was changed.
Unfortunately, all of the abuse of Oxycontin (as well as the generic equivaents) and all of the headaches it caused for the drug manufacturers and distributors resulted in all but one company stopping making the drug. The new tamper proof extended release mechanism is still under patent and the generic manufacturers can not produce. Since the generic manufacturers are not involved in research, they are not developing their own modified extended release forms. You can no longer get a generic Oxycontin and this has caused the cost of the drug to go through the roof since the only option is now the name brand drug. This has meant that many people who really do have chronic pain can no longer afford this medication and they have had to look to alternatives which may or may not work as well for them to control their chronic pain.
The Florida government, republican run, would rather spend the money and resources tracking down non-existant voter fraud than do what they're supposed to do...make stricter and more effective laws to monitor drug prescribing and stiffer penalties for doctors, clinic operators, and drug salesmen who participate in this abuse. Even the drug manufacturers and wholesalers are to blame for turning a blind eye to this problem. But no, they'd rather make sure minorities can't vote.
First of all..minorities can vote if they are US citizens. So is that your real beef...you want to have voting previleges and not be a citizen of my America? You have no rights to vote if an illegal minority and that is the way it should always be. If you are a registured voter then go vote and stop complaining for someone else.
Rush lives in Florida, doesn't he???
That's right Darla. The man who called for the death penalty for drug users now walks around with an IMPLANT IN HIS THICK TEUTONIC SKULL, due to his having ingested huge amounts of said drug, Oxycodone. And this is the man the Republic right venerate. Explains their convoluted and vicous thought patterns. Idjits.
Wow, I see that viners aren't immune to obvious drug abuse either. Causes quite a bt of paranoia doesn't it???
Yep. Rush was busted for abusing oxycodone via doctor shopping.
Shep Smith was right!
How do you people even sleep at night worrying that Rush Limbaugh exists? Good grief.
@Chicago skeptic, They're just stating facts. Hard for you to face?
Yeah, Seems like the Libs only have compassion for when the Hollywierd Celebs, et al, check in and out of $10,000/week Rehab Spas to keep their Silicone Filled Butts out of the slammer....they have all the excuses in the world...mommy this, daddy that, when I was growing up.....my Posse' enabled me....it wasn't my fault....Saint Whitney Houston was just a victim of victimless crimes.....
Just legalize all drugs and we won't have all the drug related crimes.....isn't that what the Left wants ???
Mike,
Wasn't if ronald reagan who was selling cocaine for cash to buy arms for Iran?
Great deflection Mike. They are just hanging Rush on his own petards. Guess you must like the spineless drivel pusher!
Better you defend these guys as job creators!!!!
I find it hard to believe that the drug companies had no idea what was going on.
But on the other hand, what are the drug companies supposed to do about this? Their job is to make sure that a drug is effective and safe for treating a particular illness when taken at the proper dosage. It is up to the doctor to determine when this "tool" should be applied to a particular patient. It is also up to state and local authorities to close the loopholes that allow these pill mills to exist. Why do vanloads of drug addicts drive from Kentucky to Florida to get these pills? Because Kentucky has clamped down on the illegal drug trade while Florida looks the other way. This is something the drug manufacturers have absolutely no control over.
They knew exactly what was going on and they loved it.
IDK how I feel about this.
People that are addicted like this will always find a means and a way to attain their drugs. But I'm also a Ron Paul supporter in that I think every drug should be legalized. If someones stupid enough to use the drug and get themselves killed then it's no loss to humanity as a whole. We weren't put on this Earth to babysit these fools that make these mistakes. Nor should we punish those that cater to these addicts as they're just trying to make money and hustle in a recession that has forced a lot of us to take less then legitimate avenues to attain currency.
Though I will say this: It's nice to see the DEA actually busting pill mills as oppose to some pot grower that has maybe 3 plants in his house that he uses solely for him/herself.
"Has forced a lot of US to take less then [sic] legitimate avenues to attain currency"? Speak for yourself. I earn all my money legally.
Of course the drug companies knew, like ofaaafo said they loved it making billions off these people. Perdue was fined $600 million for lying to the FDA about the addictiveness of OxyContin. They have a new one coming out next year just like OxiContin but it will be made from Hydrocodone instead of Oxycodone. It will be just as addictive as the original OC's. Let's see if the FDA approves it. I'm sure some palms will be greased to get this approved.
good for you, JCMarra
I agree with Jose. If people want to kill themselves getting high, so what? Let 'em die and good riddance.
Of course they knew. Just after the dollar like the 2 boys. They got off easy.
I totally agree that the drug company should also be hauled in on this drug bust!! They knew what was going on...but don't forget the fact that congress and all politicians have huge stock investments in the drug companies and the drugs they produce. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY that they all make. Nobody really cares about people anymore. Including most doctors. Not all but most. My daughter had major surgery and has been on an adictive drug for 1 1/2 years now. The doctor told her she is medically dependent on the drug and not a drug addict. I guess it was to make her feel better about taking the drug. The hospital didn't renew his contract last fall and now he has a separate practice. I wonder why?? My husband and I took her to her appointment one time and we noticed that people just came in and went up to the nurses window and got her to print out the prescriptions that they wanted without seeing the doctor. We thought that as illegal to do now. At least at my doctors office you have to see him to get another prescription after your refills run out. That is now the Federal Law on prescriptions. Don't forget to take a look at all the people that make money off from every prescription. The investors, (politicians and the rich) the producers of the drugs, pharmacies that fill the prescriptions, doctors that write the prescriptions. Now tell me, who wants you on these drugs for your entire life? They all do!! Treat the cause but not the pain with addictive drugs....The only people that should be on addictive drugs are the terminally ill. They really need the help with the pain. God bless them. I had shoulder surgery and the doctor gave me a prescription for only one week of oxcontin. He earned my respect by not keeping me on it longer. I then took tylenol and just put up with some of the pain. At least I wasn't addicted to the oxy. We have to take our own health into our hands these days or take a lot of prescriptions. My son has a list of prescriptions that he takes...we are shocked!! My husband's sister has a list of prescriptions she takes just for her migraines. But her migraine doctor never has had her write down what she eats and drinks to see if that triggers her migraines. She drinks a lot of soda ( 5 or 6 per day) with artificial sweetners in them and food coloring also in them. He doesn't care about her, only lining his pockets with money!!! It's heart breaking to see what is going on now days. Look at all the prescriptions that are advertized on TV. When I grew up the only thing advertized was Bayer Asprin!
Seems like the doctors making the prescriptions are more guilty than the George brothers. BTW, how is what they were doing any different than what a bartender does? Drugs are drugs. It's hypocritical that some are accepted and some aren't.
It's illegal. That is the difference. Whether or not narcotics should be OTC along with pot is a separate issue that probably should be seriously debated but never will. Too many sanctimonious lawmakers use it for fodder getting votes both on the right and the left.
As far as the punishment, they all appear to have gotten off easy. The brothers will be back on the street doing something illegal within 5 to 7 years. The doctors will probably lose their licenses or have to practice under close supervision and not be allowed to prescribe narcotics.
How many people die every year from an overdose of marijuana? It's a good thing we keep arresting those joint rollers or else we'd have them dying in the streets.
I think the big problem with legalizing marijuana is no different than the government wishing it could ban cigarettes because of the health issues. With all the cigarette warnings today, would it make sense to make another smoking product legal?
@notfive0; me thinks thems puts alots of chemicals in tommaco whats says u. no need to feed weed with chemicals alreadys gotsenough.
That's right Mike..alcohol and tobacco are just as destructive as pain pills. But there is too much money to be made off of illegal drugs for them to ever be legal. There is tons of money generated illegally and legally.
Hypocrisy runs deep into this country.
Jack, there is no parole in the Federal system if he got 20 yrs. He'll get out in 20 yrs.
I was not aware of that, stc. Thanks.
Tron, my point is that if our government decided to make blue ink illegal for political purposes I would not be surprised...and that IS that. We spend too much tax money on stupid laws that often are written to get votes, and there DA's out there just frothing at the mouth to prosecute someone for breaking those laws. Vote all the rascals out and maybe that could change.
ummmmm, you don't HAVE to smoke it. do your homework before you look like an idiot.
In the federal system you have to do 85% of your sentence.
The way I read it there is no parole in the federal system unless you were sentenced before they changed the law in 1987. They were trying to bring it back in 2007 but I don't know if it passed. I'll have to read up on it somemore.
Well now we have the George brothers, everything will fall back into place where it should be. The people who have been paying thousand of dollars to justice system all over the country will get their money back along with an apology for criminalizing them for the medical addiction that those George brothers created. Whats next. In order to maintain high pay rates in the justice system and have favorable employees somethings got to give.
John George may not have been involved in this, but his is criminally stupid.
Even education apparently doesn't fix stupid.
lets not argue people! lifes not that hard all you have to do is blame Bush for everything and all your sins are forgiven! blame whats his name NEVER! everythings fine..........
Maggie, no one is that stupid he knew where the money was coming from. Just trying to save face in his community & help his sons get lighter sentences.
Being someone who takes pain medication legally (you know, for actual pain...), I'm glad they were caught. It's already a holy nightmare for people like me to get our prescriptions, and it's the addicts and the drug mills that make it that way. Although, I don't know... maybe it should be a nightmare to get? It is powerful medication, and nothing to f**k around with. I just wish that I didn't get treated like a criminal everywhere I went, even with legal prescriptions and a great doctor.
I do feel bad for the people patronizing the mills in one respect- opiates are a bitch to get off of. I've done it twice, when my pain subsided enough (I really don't like to take them if I don't have to) and it was really, really bad, even with medical assistance tapering down.
I never felt I was being treated like a criminal when I filled my percocet scrips, but the fact that I had to go back to my doctor every time I needed a refill and get a new scrip was a giant PITA, since my doctor is 25 miles from home. I was on the percocet for ten months, and coming off it was a nightmare near the end, even while doing a slow taper off with medical advice. The reason I came off the drug in the first place was because I realized it really was not helping with my neuropathic pain, and the side effects were becoming intolerable.
Yeah, I do pity anyone who is hooked on this stuff, but it can be beaten if you do it sensibly, and gradually. Cold turkey is something I cannot even imagine if your daily dose is high enough. I guess I was fortunate that I got through it without going through that type of horror, but once you take what you know is your last dose, your anxiety level does rise a bit. I survived, and if I had to, I would take it again, but I know the deal going in. Funny thing is, when you take it for real pain, you never, ever get a high. You just don't care so much about the pain that is still there.
Have you tried Neurontin (gabapentin). That's what it is made for, my BIL takes it, he said it works & it's non narcotic.
"Funny thing is, when you take it for real pain, you never, ever get a high. You just don't care so much about the pain that is still there."
True-I've been on narcotic pain meds for 7 years now-not because I want to get high-because I have pain that if it's not treated makes it impossible for me to to anything other than lay on a couch,or in a bed for most of the day.
Due to all the people who abuse oxycodone-all forms-including percocet-are being prescribed less and less-at least in Ohio-my Dr. says it is due to new fed and state regulations,and that the "problem states" are Ohio,Florida,and Michigan-8deaths per day in Fla,4 a day in Oh and Michigan.
This hurts those who actually need to take a form of oxycodone because it is the only drug that offers them some pain relief-my Dr. actually cares about his license-and is affiliated with a well known hospital- (Cleveland Clinc)-
so he follows the laws/regs-which are screwed up-
In Ohio-he can give me as much time release morphine as he feels is appropriate-but if he prescribes me more than 20 mg. of oxycodone a day-his license is at risk-which is BS-I have actual medically documented reasons for taking pain meds-now I can no longer take the medication that worked the best-all due to people who abuse the meds-and clinics in Fla and elsewhere that do nothing but write prescriptions.
I have to give random urine samples,and show up for "pill counts" when asked-to insure I am taking the meds as prescribed-yet I am the one who suffers due to those who abuse the meds,and the pill mills that exist solely to write prescriptions,and enrich the owners.
It IS a shame that these pill mills that cater specifically to addicts make it a lot tougher on people that really do need pain meds -- as well as the honest doctors who treat them. Whenever stories like this come out, anti-drug activists, legislators and the FDA/DEA rush headlong to pass even more laws and restrictions that make it increasingly difficult for true pain patients to get the help and relief they need.
I've even had a doctor tell me about some MDs who are afraid to prescribe strong opiates to terminal cancer patients for fear they'd become "addicted" or that the FDA/DEA would come down on them, jeopardizing their licenses. When it gets to that point, you know something is wrong with our prescription drug laws and regulations, and they need to be reexamined.
I'm not a believer, but if God created opium for any sort of reason it was in order that it could used a palliative for the chronic pains of the terminally ill. So what if a terminal patient gets addicted to morphine or heroin or oxycodone, or whatever. If it makes the last six horrible months of their life a little more bearable, let 'em have whatever they want. This ridiculous attitude that it is some kind of "moral weakness" to rely on palliatives at the end is absurd. "Sorry grandma, you can't have any more morphine today, even though you're in terrible pain. We're concerned you are becoming addicted so we're going to have to reduce your dosage." Come on! That's what it's for.
This is one of the saddest and most disgusting stories I have seen on the subject. My own son is an abuser so I know the damage it causes to both him and my family. It is not curable in my opinion without God's hand and power. Every addict brings huge costs to society. Our laws allowed this, the pill makers love the sales and far more "doctors" are pill pushers than we admit. I've watched my pill shopping son do the same thing here in CO. I pray for some help controlling this epidemic of addiction in our entitlement society.
God Bless you Ed your son and family will be in my prayers.
Ed, I know of what you speak. My son, thankfully, is clean again... for now... I feel these people got a slap on the wrist for causing a lifetime of pain and sorry for so many who are now addicts and their families and the pharmaceutical companies aren't held responsible. At least the formula for oxy was finally changed to make it more difficult to abuse. Why wasn't it brought out in that form originally? The drug makers must have been aware of how easy it would be to abuse in its original form.
Good luck, ed, and hang in there!
The real cost of the prescription drug epidemic is the price our young people are paying and the nightmare their families live through. That cost is way too high. We have money-grubbing weasels like the George brothers and their roster of 'doctors' to thank for it. I hope they all pay a very high price for their greed and selfishness.
Ed, very well said. My nephew has been struggling for many many years with this. The folks who want to just legalize drugs and think the problem will go away have obviously never been through the agonizing heartbreak of watching a family member do things that they would never in a million years do if they were not on drugs (steal, lie, worse, etc.). There are human beings and personal history behind the "junkie" facade, that people do not see.
I agree with Ed and the rest of your replies, what really bothers me about this article is towards the end where they make the insinuation that because these 2 guys are behind bars that it has even begun to put a dent in this epidemic. I am in the Northeast, having gone to college in Boston and now living in NYC and all I can say is that this stuff is everywhere! Not just down south. My brother is an addict, my Wife's brother and Uncle are too and they have all been for years now.....it's just so damn HARD! My parents have been destroyed by this and it hurts to watch them reeling inside. I can see the fight withering away from them day by day. Now its even harder for people such as my Brother to get any kind of help/treatment....the systems are overflowing w/ people addicted to this crap. I could go on and on, but, as many of you who also have close friends or family being affected by this true "epidemic", I feel pretty helpless right now and can only hope that the government or powers that be will realize that this stuff does not need to be even nearly as accessible as it is. I would really like to get involved in some advocacy to push against this. I know that many of those who have become addicted are still good people and still the same person we love, its really hard watching them struggle and not knowing how to help them find their way out.
We would be there too, JohnnyGetit, but for the grace of god. I have a family member who seems to have come out from under the grip of a certain death from drug abuse and alcoholism, so I know the pain you are in too.
You have to remain hopeful and stay strong for your family.
I know the heartbreak and helplessness of addiction. My 29 y/o son has been addicted for years. I've tried everything I know to help him and know he doesn't want to live like this. A smart and personable young man whose life has been taken away from these drugs. Most treatment programs are not available for his because of lack of funds and/or regulations. It has been a nightmare not only for him but for myself. Also, he got involved in the legal system for possession and that has only made it worse. My heart goes out to all who are addicted or love someone who is. Trusting in
God to make it another day.
My family has been plagued by drug abuse, legal perscriptions and illegal street, for decades. Only those of us who have seen the tragedy and pain that drugs cause can really understand the stupidity of talk of legalizing their use. Moreover, one has to understand how and why we criminalized drug abuse. At the turn of the 19th century, there was a hirgher precentage of Americans addicted to cocaine than are addicted today. If you think legalization will solve a problem, you are entirely forgetting that we tried legalized drug use before and it was an utter failure.
Good luck to all addicts and their eventual rehabilitation. Please don't call their recovery a cure. That isists that the condition is a sickness or disease. It is not. Addiction is a horrible result of poor personal choices. Addiction is not a disease and try fixing the behavior rather than excusing it. Weakness is easily excused as something else. Go ahead and call me ignorant, those who feel insulted, but that is attcking the person not the idea. I am not playing semantics, either, addicts are not sick they're on a poorly chosen path.
Matty, perhaps you should thank God that you are not someone who has such a weakness. Or maybe you should thank your parents for giving you the tools to avoid this type of tragedy. But, you know, a cold, hard heart is also a weakness.
Addiction is not just weakness, it is a biochemical/physiological artificially created need. Most addicts, when they are sober, want to stop. But the craving is so strong. Eventually, their brains cease to be able to produce the chemicals which naturally produce pleasure. The effect is so strong, that even after sobering up, most will never feel pleasure in the same way again. Imagine your life that way and perhaps you can wrap your mind around why they become addicted. No one wakes up and says, "Hey, this looks like a great day to screw up my life." They get their through ignorance and/or a lack of vigilence while recreationally using this crap.
I've known dozens of people addicted to pills. Of them, TWO had a reason to be on them in the first place. I feel sorry for those two people, and anyone else addicted to pills who didn't want them in the first place. For everyone else - Matty's dead on.
This is just a sad, sad commentary on the state of affairs within the pharmaceutical industry. I have driven past one of these "pain clinics" before, albeit in North Carolina, and witnessed exactly what was mentioned in the article: people queued up before the clinic is even open, disheveled, every single person chain-smoking, and it was quite disheartening to see.
Darwinian selection in action. Survival of the fittest. Good riddance to anyone stupid enough to get themselves messed up with this crap.
I live in eastern Kentucky. These pills have addicted and killed many people. I can recall the commonwealth of Kentucky and the state of Tennessee lobbying Florida over the pain pill epidemic killing people here.. Everyone seemed to know what was going on but with Florida not tracking the drugs in seemed not much could be done to stop the flow of the pills coming in here. I don't really understand too much about it but I know a good friend of mines some hung himself because he could not break the addiction cycle. My friend said every time he would help his son get straight for a while, they would keep calling his house telling him they just got in a new load of oxies.
I had a family member almost kill himself taking these pills. Our police departments were running ragged trying to get the pills off the streets. The state of Florida has to except alot of the blame here. Some tracking needs to be done to see if any of the moneys were going to legislatures campaign funds. I don't use drugs thank God i never did but I have seen first hand what these things can do. The drug company's should they not have wondered why all these drugs were going to these places. I don't know seems like alot more involved here then what is coming out.
I had a cousin who lived in Eastern Kentucky and he overdosed on Oxycodone and Xanax! I don't know if he went to one of these pain clinics or not but my Aunt told the family that he had just gotten back from Florida 3 days before the OD. I have a chronic pain issue with nerve damage and I have been on pain meds for 4 years. The pain management clinic I went to was not a Pill Mill!!! This doctor tries other methods to ease chronic pain. I had to take a urine test every month and they sent a nurse into the bathroom so no way to substitute urine. I have had several steroid shots and the last one I had was 3 months ago. I weened myself off and I was able to do it slow enough that the withdrawal wasn't so bad. I will probably have to be on them again so I am taking advantage of not having to be on them while I can. I would give just about anything to be able to stay off of all of it!
nice work pretty boys....hope u enjoy your time in prison :).
AS the George brother's are serving their time, the Movie for this insane story will be in the making. I find it hard to believe that police, DEA agents, took so long to find this operation that was obiously TOTALLY out of control. A shame America has this kind of drug problem. Did'nt mess with one dollar bills so they just burned them, unbelieveable. 14 safe's with a million each in the attic. With so many people from different state's coming to these place's, looks as if they would have stood out.
They did stand out, however this kind of case takes a LONG time to properly develop, investigate, and document. They typically don't move in until they have solid cases against most of the players. Plus, this was a marginally "legal" setup, so they had to totally be careful that there were no legal angles the lot of them could get off by. It's not like they were dealing crack. The individual steps those guilty went through were perhaps "legal", but they took it all into the thermonuclear realm, so they had to establish where the legal process ended and the illegality started.
Remember these guys have a lot of money and money like that is almost a get out of jail free card. The Feds had to have all their ducks in a row in this case before they could move.
What took the Florida DEA so long? They were concentrating on tracking and arresting the people addicted by these drugs. It has long been known by people in many states that the Georges ran and operated these pill mills who would 'teach' the people that came how to 'doctor shop', which pharmacies to go to, what to say when they went...even what to say when they go to the er to get meds. Fifteen and a half years and seventeen and a half years is a complete joke. These two men caused untold amounts of misery to people in numbers too big to even track and yet they will get out of jail in half that time armed with even more knowledge to commit crimes than when they went in. And their overpriveldged upbringing will continue to allow them to use and abuse even more people. The damage that they have done deserves life sentences, just as they have given life sentences to the people that they helped get addicted. Yes, there were some that saught out the George's as a drug source but there were also people with real pain seeking relief, that now are drug addicts and will search this out for years if they live. If not, it will just be torment and misery for them. Why did they get off so easy? How much of the money in the safes was used to pay off the right people to get these easy sentences? I know first hand that many of the people addicted to this crap got comprable convictions causing a lifetime of job limits for them. How can this be? Why are the people that got trapped by these drugs get nearly the same amount of time as the 2 guys that made sooooo much money and masterminded thousands of people becoming addicts?????????
I am glad these 'legitimate' businessmen are now out of business, but I'm concerned about the thousands of addicted tweakers that are now roaming the streets looking for a new source. Treatment in this country is the least used tactic of the failed 'War on Drugs.' The favorite tactic of 'lock them up and throw away the key' has only filled prisons to capacity with addicts instead of the real perpetrators of this epidemic.
Locking up the George brothers, and their running dogs is a start, but it isn't enough until some of the real real perpetrators of this prescription drug epidemic are punished. Use 'Citizens United' to its full extent, if corporations are citizens --lock up some big pharma stockholders, boards of directors, CEOs and CFOs.
Rap
Yeah, they won't be locking up any CEO's anytime soon. Money buys you a get out of jail ticket. Everyone in America knows that. Can't touch large DONATIONS, that's off limits.
Just for clarification, "tweakers" generally refers to methamphetamine addicts, whether they're into crystal meth, crack, or whatever form. Opioid narcotics users, including heroin, morphine and now oxycodone, are generally called "junkies". No big deal, just semantic terms for various forms of losers.
That last paragraph is a hoot! That their sons were victims of the physicians who doled out the prescriptions, bwahahaha! All of them are crooks and belong just where they are the only thing is that their jail terms should be much longer. I still don't understand the physicians writing prescriptions and filling them right in the office, never heard of that. People here have to go to a pharmacy, although, crooks can get away with whatever they want. Even the people who came to their clinics aren't victims. I would bet you that a large amt of those poor pain ridden patients took their pills out and sold them to drug dealersor sold them themselves, victims, NOT! I only see the relatives and friends of these vermine who have to sit by and watch their loved ones live a Hellish life and part of them die along with their loved ones.
Take these monsters, put them in jail and throw away the key. And no matter what anyone reports America isn't the only country involved in this awful world. They just won't admit it.
The father is an idiot. Just saying.
The father is just being a dad, not being able to acknowledge the worst of what his kids have been up to.
America is the new zombie land but instead of brains we seek pain killers. Even here in Oklahoma, the abuse of Oxycodone is reaching alarming levels. Okie zombies are everywhere and all demographics are included. I personally know two Native Americans hooked on Oxycodone and each time I see them they are a little bit closer to death. Oxycodone is the pill from hell and it needs to be eradicated from our nation.
that is the most intelligent thing i have read on here yet, problem is that this drug makes the drug companies and pharmacies as well as our own federal government to much money for them to do the most responsible thing and take this product off the market. as for the company changing the formula that was a joke because these pain clinics had already told patients how to break it down to get high these doctors need these patients to stay high and addicted to continue making the money they are used to, these doctors send their patients to mom and pops family pharmacies to get around the tracking systems they all work together because this is a very high money stakes game and you also have the DEA AGENTS that look the other way for their own part of the stakes this way to easy money to be had and then you have the GREAT STATE OF FLORIDA thats been dragging their feet to pass the laws that are needed to govern this drug why??? because here again our great state officials are making money off these deals also. then lets go a step further add the court system in they dont want to keep the junkies locked up they want to keep arresting them charging court cost after court cost, probation fees etc again you have a money making system, i have seen more new court houses built in the state of florida in the last 5 years than ever before where is all this money coming from???? THE ANSWER TO ALL IS LEGAL HERION THATS ALL THIS DRUG IS !!!! EVERYONE new this when they made it a legal drug to be dispenced they all saw the $$$$$$ signs and new this was a way for all to make money, then lets once again take it a step further enter the patients or junkies whatever you want to call them and they saw the money trail and wanted to get a part of this high stakes game and they began making their own money off of being on this drug not only did they need enough for them to take they needed enough to sale and make their money also so what happened ?? the doctors over prescribed the manufactures overproduced the pharmacies overstocked because it was to much money to lose for everyone if anyone put a stop to it. there is a long list of conspiritors to this story all were making a fortune for anyone to blow the whistle and when the whistle started blowing from parents and loved ones that were losing a child a mother or father etc. it was ignored until the death toll was so high they couldnt ignore it anymore but still they have taken all the time in the world to even put a very small dent in the problem everyone needs to make sure that they have all the millions they need for life and in alot of cases billions of $$$ before they put a END TO IT ALL !!!!!! this medicine should of only ever been used in a hospital setting or a hospice situation to start with and all the players in the game new this from the very start but the word GREED has always won over the word {responsibility } so until that changes this will continue to be a problem for the world as a whole not only the state of florida and loved ones will continue to bury their children, mother and fathers etc. my only hope is that the children that are growing up seeing this abuse learns from it and does not grow up to copy it. god bless all that has a loved one caught in this vicious cycle in any capacity.
I was reading a post last week about a hospital in Tennessee where over 50% of the babies born are addicted to oxy or other prescription drugs. Sad
Now the problem has gotten worse.The addicts are moving on to herion.The O.D's that have been counted were fot the most part.Sucides over the cost of the addiction the amount the street cost has risen.This problem will never go away.A politicians platform to get elected.Thanks a lot now these people are moving on to more unknown doseage (herion) deaths and crime will soar.I council addicts and have seen the way this is going.There will be double the O.D.'s in the coming years.People who realy need the meds are finding it harder and harder to get.The doctors who treat people the right way are afraid to write prescriptions for their patients that need it.
You counsel addicts but don't know how to spell heroin? Wow.
The fact that the father of these men complains that his sons are victims because they relied on doctors' advice and that the clinics were legal is an example of such moral bankruptcy that it is hard to comprehend. When greed takes over all sense of decency I just have to wonder what kind of parents raise children with literally NO moral compass. I mean these young men were brought up in a wealthy home. Yet their parents seem to have offered them a life of entitlement without instilling one ounce of honesty and decency in them. That so many have died because of them is tragic. That their father is trying to deflect their guilt onto others is unconscionable.
Bad things happen that no one can comprehend and many times people get thrown under the bus because their misunderstood. No one tries to help them because what they do is so repulsive anyone coming to their aid is seen as a collaborator. Its a fathers duty to stand by his children. Not to make lies nor deceit, but to minimize the damage. Some of his points are valid, but that doesn't excuse his sons. These are controlled substances, key word controlled. These substances don't seem very controlled to me, and I would argue they are not controlled. That the controllers are the first in a long line of people who screwed up the usage of these drugs. Controllers, producers, buyers, prescribers, sellers, users, enforcers and more then likely FATHERS.
Yup, these kids were brought up in a wealthy home by a man that lived off of other people and taught his children how to do the same. Rich and with the mentality that money rules and they have no responsibility to other humans or society at large. And look at the mom, she was in on it too so it is no wonder that the 2 boys turned out to be people that used up other people. I am still so mad that these scum of the earth, bottom feeders got off so easily. The number of lives, whole families lives that they destroyed cannot even be counted and yet they will get out of jail just to start again.
@ A human being, I agree with you but I just have a question. The article said that there were 14 safes in their mother's attic and each held $1 million and that they only retrieved $5 million...so what gives? The article only dealt with these two brothers but doctors all over the country have addicted patients to oxy and xanax, I live in the Las Vegas area and worked in a couple of hospitals here and saw the doctors FREELY write scripts for this and xanax. The problem is much larger than strip mall clinics. It often times is right out of the doctors office's.
They should of been charged with murder for all the young people that OD'ed on their pills. No different than giving them a half loaded gun & letting them play Russian Roulette.
It's a father's duty to teach his children right from wrong.
It appears the brothers just followed Florida Gov. Rick Scotts business model. Steal everything you can from the health care system that is unable to police itself. The Gov.s. Columbia/HCA stold 100s of millions from Medicare and the Gov. walks away with 350 million in stock? People died as a result these crimes against humanity. Then he spends 75 million of his money getting elected Governor.
Tooooo many people knew what was going on with the Brothers for the health system and eventually the criminal justice system not to know what was happening early on. The alledged patients on the streets had to have given up the operation 1000s of times to law enforcement. Yet, it flourished for years in Florida? The Gov. and the Florida Legislature had to think twice passing the new "Pill Tracking Law". Again, makes you wonder what money can buy?
Its easy to dismiss the alledged patients as a waste but the 10s of thousand families affected by the SYSTEMS lack of immediate action is shameful on the Health Systems and Law Enforcement.
The brothers are the tip of the iceberg and it appears they will be dealt with but the 2 systems need to be held accountable for their inaction.
Yep wouldn't be surprised if Rick didn't make another million off if the brothers pain Clinics. Never can understand how the Republicans could ever got a criminal like Rick elected !! One reason the Medicare is in trouble is organizations like Scott's Columbia Hospitals has stolen so much from Medicare
In some states, when a person overdoses on illegal drugs, the pusher is prosecuted as contributing to the death. Yet, the drug companies that make oxy just keep pumping it out without restriciton. The drug was developed as a treatment for chronic pain at the end of life: now they hand it out for any kind of pain, anywhere, anytime. The drug companies keep track of shipments - why didn't they know that there were 200 times more chronic pain patients in that Florida county than anywhere else in the country? I'm so tired of the drug companies getting away with murder and robbery legally. Why are they immune when the drugs they develop and sell are ruining lives and causing deaths ? Pain clinics like the George's could not exist without the willing cooperation of the drug companies.
Bob P. You are so right, and, I hate to think this, but filling up the prisons with addicts is a sure fire way of guaranteeing that the contracts with the privately owned prisons are met.
And unemployment is kept lower, its a win, win for the States.
State legislatures passing get tough on crime laws are the largest reason for our large prison population. Case in point I know Colorado's prison population just decreased for the 1st time in a long time because of laws passed by our legislature. This is where if one party doesent start banging the head of the other party with the weak on crime propaganda then something can be done. This is where a functional govt can be a win for the states citizens, it took large govt cutbacks however to force this type of legislation.
And if we court mandated them to treatment, for-profits will squeeze their way in there too. Or is your solution just not to do anything? I'm not a fan of prison for drug users - as long as they aren't committing crimes to get the money for their drugs (yeah, like that happens), but if your complaint is that it is big business for corporations, the same thing will happen when we shift to treatment.
Better treatment than incarceration, that just creates more social problems with half the fathers in jail and their kids slingin' dope on the street corners. (Not that the father in this particular scenario was any paragon of virtuous family leadership!). Making this crap illegal doesn't prevent people from getting it if they want it. Legalize it, tax the f**k out of it, and plow the taxes back into social programs for those who are too stupid to handle the stuff.
So govt regulations are solving this drug problem. Terrible thing govt regulations. Also a arm of the Federal Govt is enforcing laws, terrible thing big govt.
"So govt regulations are solving this drug problem"
No-new govt. regs are making it impossible for those who actually need to take some form of oxycodone-which includes percocet-to have the medication prescribed for them-I know I'm one of the people who needs to take pain meds just to be able to function-and yes-I have a documented medical reason for taking pain meds,and go to a Dr. who is affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic-not some "pill mill"-
now-due to new regs-I can no longer be prescribed more than 20 mg of any form of oxycodone-yet my Dr. can prescribe whatever dose of morphine he feels is needed-
Yeah-Govt. regulation is "solving the problem"-it's only hurting those who actually have a legit. medical reason for taking oxycodone.
So what's the problem? Take the morphine. Or do you differentiate between them somehow and think that percocet is A-OK, while that baad ol' morphine is pure eevil!
This is the type of phony "moralistic" thinking that got us into this mess 150 years ago after the end of the civil war. Thousands of soldiers were given morphine for wounds or amputations and ended up addicted. This was perceived as moral weakness but, thank God, there was a remedy. Heroin! It was considered perfectly safe, good and wholesome. You could order it by mail from Sears-Roebuck & Company. Do your research, this country's history with drugs is ridiculous.
two twin brothers trying very hard to scrounge money from addicts for many years before they got caught. How can this happen with no incident of bribery of a government official? Is there a coverup or negligence being hidden by convicting these twin brothers? I think a local government official linked to these two's operation should also be identify to be fair to about it.
Local govt are squeezed for resources, manpower and time to prosecute this case may not have been available. After all what do you do, solve assaults, murders or spend months of detectives time on 2 brothers on what on the face appears legal.
square dude,
when the federal CDC agency claim that these two brothers' operation in florida is the center of an epidemic it is akin to a terrorist attack with a bioweapon to cause an epidemic that concerns the CDC, yes?
Most terrorist activities are legitimate until they are link to terrorism. The cause for terrorism among terrorists and these two brothers is for to better their own lives.
Furthermore, if the brothers are just foot soldiers, where's the brain, etc.? Thus we need to identify local or federal government official link to these two. And where is homeland security in all of this?
the end.
This was far beyond just the local government. The feds were involved in this case years before the 2009 convicitons. My daughter was there and involved with this group as she became an addict through them. Many many many people that were arrested were addicts at the hands of these 2 and were arrested by the feds, not just the local police. And the feds were very very aggressive in their surveillance of the addicts, following them, listening in on their phones, talking with the pharmacies where they filled their scripts, so they KNEW the George's were involved. If it is true, as the article reads, that they were doing this in an attempt to get the George's, I still cannot comprehend such short sentences. These sentences will by no means be a deterent to any drug dealer! A mere slap on the wrist, and right back on the street to hook more unknowing people thereby destroying many many more lives, ensuring a great life for the few.
You cannot destroy someones life unless they allow you to. The drug addicts hunted the dealers down to buy from them.
A human being...,
It's sad to hear of a parent talking about how their daughter got addicted... However from your posts, it seems the government had for years failed to identify the "legitimate" business startup as a front for criminal activity of a terrorist nature. So, all the government did was target the customers for law enforcement. Had the government view the business is a front for homebrew terrorism, homeland security would get involve, especially with CDC concerning statement about these two twin brothers' business startup as center of "epidemic" of oxycodone addiction and death.
So, a ranking government official is responsible for protecting the business startup and force law enforcement to just focus on their customers whom are drug addicts anyway. They would do this until several death occurs that can be linked to the startup. By identifying this government person, we american public can do enforcement of accountability if there is a repeat in the future involving a different addictive chemicals or drugs.