spini4
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Messages
- 795
PALM HARBOR — The addiction started after he injured his shoulder and spine in two car crashes.
He was prescribed seven tablets of Vicodin a day to numb the pain, but it didn't take long for Robert Palmisano to crave stronger doses.
His family physician refused to prescribe more potent medication. So Palmisano found relief at pain management clinics, where he paid cash for up to 120 opiate-based pills during each visit. "I was just trying to get right," said Palmisano, of Palm Harbor. "That's when all hell broke loose."
He was 19 when he got hooked on painkillers.
"I used to crush them," Palmisano, now 26, said of the pills, "then snort them or shoot them up. It was really hard to quit."
Palmisano's going from patient to pill addict is not uncommon, medical professionals said.
And an increase in the number of people addicted to pills is linked to the glut of pain clinics in the Tampa Bay area doling out a massive volume of prescriptions, law enforcement officials said.
"The more there is out on the street, the more people are getting addicted," Pinellas County sheriff's Capt. Robert Alfonso said of opiate-based painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone.
Rick Sponaugle, owner and medical director of the Florida Detox and Wellness Center, said most of the cases he has seen involved patients with legitimate pain developing a dependency on pills.
"It starts with a legal pain doctor," Sponaugle said. "Then the patients need more and more."
Recovering addict Todd Noble of Sarasota said that's how he got hooked on OxyContin.
Noble, 45, who has since been treated by Sponaugle, said a dental procedure led to his addiction.
Noble, like Palmisano, was prescribed Vicodin but eventually sought out stronger doses. Noble said he bought his pills from a drug dealer who procured them at pain clinics.
"It became a full-blown addiction in a couple of weeks," said Noble, 45. "I had to detox off OxyContin seven times. Sometimes I would relapse on the way home."
* * * * *
Local private and public treatment centers continue to be filled with people addicted to painkillers. At Hillsborough County's public drug treatment center, there are 20 beds for people who volunteer, or are court-ordered, to undergo a four-day detox program.
Most of the beds are occupied by people recovering from addictions to opiate-based pills, said Michael Strolla, the assistant medical director of the clinic run by the Agency for Community Treatment Services.
"If they're 40 or under, it's going to be opiates," Strolla said. "And they got them at pill mills. It's out of control."
Most patients had legitimate pain before addiction took hold. They tried physical therapy and other treatments, but getting prescriptions was more convenient and provided immediate relief, Strolla said. "It's a common story. These people, most of them, truly thought they were doing the right thing after tweaking their back or getting injured," Strolla said.
Because opiate-based pills aren't outlawed like other narcotics, more pain clinics started opening up shop in the Tampa Bay area and elsewhere in Florida, Alfonso said.
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39934996
He was prescribed seven tablets of Vicodin a day to numb the pain, but it didn't take long for Robert Palmisano to crave stronger doses.
His family physician refused to prescribe more potent medication. So Palmisano found relief at pain management clinics, where he paid cash for up to 120 opiate-based pills during each visit. "I was just trying to get right," said Palmisano, of Palm Harbor. "That's when all hell broke loose."
He was 19 when he got hooked on painkillers.
"I used to crush them," Palmisano, now 26, said of the pills, "then snort them or shoot them up. It was really hard to quit."
Palmisano's going from patient to pill addict is not uncommon, medical professionals said.
And an increase in the number of people addicted to pills is linked to the glut of pain clinics in the Tampa Bay area doling out a massive volume of prescriptions, law enforcement officials said.
"The more there is out on the street, the more people are getting addicted," Pinellas County sheriff's Capt. Robert Alfonso said of opiate-based painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone.
Rick Sponaugle, owner and medical director of the Florida Detox and Wellness Center, said most of the cases he has seen involved patients with legitimate pain developing a dependency on pills.
"It starts with a legal pain doctor," Sponaugle said. "Then the patients need more and more."
Recovering addict Todd Noble of Sarasota said that's how he got hooked on OxyContin.
Noble, 45, who has since been treated by Sponaugle, said a dental procedure led to his addiction.
Noble, like Palmisano, was prescribed Vicodin but eventually sought out stronger doses. Noble said he bought his pills from a drug dealer who procured them at pain clinics.
"It became a full-blown addiction in a couple of weeks," said Noble, 45. "I had to detox off OxyContin seven times. Sometimes I would relapse on the way home."
* * * * *
Local private and public treatment centers continue to be filled with people addicted to painkillers. At Hillsborough County's public drug treatment center, there are 20 beds for people who volunteer, or are court-ordered, to undergo a four-day detox program.
Most of the beds are occupied by people recovering from addictions to opiate-based pills, said Michael Strolla, the assistant medical director of the clinic run by the Agency for Community Treatment Services.
"If they're 40 or under, it's going to be opiates," Strolla said. "And they got them at pill mills. It's out of control."
Most patients had legitimate pain before addiction took hold. They tried physical therapy and other treatments, but getting prescriptions was more convenient and provided immediate relief, Strolla said. "It's a common story. These people, most of them, truly thought they were doing the right thing after tweaking their back or getting injured," Strolla said.
Because opiate-based pills aren't outlawed like other narcotics, more pain clinics started opening up shop in the Tampa Bay area and elsewhere in Florida, Alfonso said.
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39934996
