Prescription Painkillers Rapidly Becoming United States' Biggest Addiction

Painkiller Abuse by Far more Common Than Heroin

A national report revealed last week that the demand for treatment for addiction to painkillers is staggering. Admissions to drug treatment centers more than quadrupled in the last ten years across the country. This trend is mirrored in Florida.

In 2008, abuse of pain medication was attributed to almost 10 percent of treatment admissions, up from 2 percent in 1998. Southern states reported the highest numbers, and the increase was most significant in the 18 to 34 age demographic.

The United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report was released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The report called prescription drug abuse the country’s fastest-growing drug problem. The new information follows a Florida report showing that the prescription drug oxycodone last year killed a record number of Floridians, especially in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

This distressing news is nothing new to staff and patients at the Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office in east Tampa. The DACCO program offers counseling and opiate detox with methadone and suboxone. Of the more than 400 people currently in the program, about 80 percent were abusing prescription pain pills instead of heroin.

"(They think) ‘I’m more status-bound if I’m taking a pill. I’m not like the junkies," said Keith Carpenter, director of opiate detox treatment. "It’s the same effect. It does the same devastation."

Carpenter said the roxicodone or oxycodone can be more easily obtained by addicts than heroin in the South. As a result, these drugs have earned the nickname "hillbilly heroin." Many addicts will crush, snort and even inject the medications into their veins to get a faster high.

"Your stomach feels like you’ve got forks in it, twisting it. Your muscles, your organs are just sitting there, grinding away, because you’re not feeding your body what it wants," said Karalyn Goldberg. Goldberg, 39, is nearing the end of her treatment in DACCO’s residential drug treatment program. It is her third attempt at treatment. Both she and her husband became addicted to pain pills after they had accidents. After four years, they lost custody of their two daughters and ended up homeless and on the streets.

"The pills were right there on the street," Goldberg said. "You can buy them anywhere. You didn’t have to fill a prescription. We had a cell phone full of numbers. It was nothing but people with pills."

The effort to fight prescription drug abuse in Florida has resulted in high-profile police raids on pain clinics. The legislature has passed new laws designed to curb doctor shopping and to punish physicians prescribing drugs illegally. Law enforcement is devoting more time and resources to catching abusers of pain medication.

The abuse of prescription drugs is affecting every demographic group, though admissions for opiate detox among whites increased 350 percent.

Carpenter, the DACCO director, knows that recovery is more than opiate detox.

"You need some support to help you negotiate life as you come off these various drugs, because, let’s face it, there is a reason you did it in the first place."