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NEWS: Legal 'heroin' sold to addicts

Mr Blonde

Mr Blonde

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Brisbane, Australia
Legal 'heroin' sold to addicts
Eamonn Duff and Daniel Lane
March 6, 2011
EXCLUSIVE

DOCTORS are writing thousands of suspect prescriptions for a pharmaceutical variation of heroin, much of it destined for the black market, forcing the federal government to investigate the actions of 50 medical practitioners.

More than 580,000 taxpayer-funded scripts were approved in NSW in the past two years for OxyContin and similar opiate painkillers, such as OxyNorm and MS-Contin, dubbed ''hillbilly heroin''.

For every $34 script of OxyContin, users are obtaining a box of 20, 80 milligram tablets. Each tablet can then sell on the black market for as much as $50. With further subsidies to pensioners, the box can be bought for as little as $6 - and its contents might be sold on the street for $1000.

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While the medication has revolutionised care for chronic pain sufferers, it is leaking out of the health system to such an extent that police and health experts warn it could soon surpass street heroin and ice as the needle addict's drug of choice.

The prescription opioids are obtained unlawfully by dealers and addicts who ''doctor shop'' for multiple prescriptions. One patient visited 46 doctors in three months and obtained 119 scripts, primarily for OxyContin, the government has confirmed.

Sydney doctor Alan Saunders, who has been targeted by doctor shoppers, warned: "It's not just OxyContin - it's valium and all the other drugs. The government is subsidising the drug trade."

Pharmacists say they are confronted with stolen and fake scripts, while legitimate pain sufferers are obtaining the drug and then selling it.

The government acknowledges the problem. Federal Minister for Human Services Tanya Plibersek confirmed to The Sun-Herald that Medicare had identified 50 doctors for ''unusually high levels of prescription writing for drugs such as OxyContin and OxyNorm''.

"The misuse of prescription narcotics is a growing problem which destroys lives and tears communities apart. Doctors suspected of making these drugs available to patients who do not require them for clinical purposes will be put on notice."

With a slow-release formula, OxyContin capsules are designed to work through the day. Illicit users, however, discard the other binding agents and extract the drug in its purest form so, when injected, it delivers an instant hit.

According to new state government statistics released to The Sun-Herald, more than $557 million worth of illegal drugs were seized in the state last year - more than double the street value of the previous year's tally of $260 million. The haul included $185.2 million worth of cannabis, $126 million of cocaine, $195 million of amphetamines and $28 million of MDMA/ecstasy. NSW Police Minister Michael Daley said the figures showed police were doing ''a fantastic job keeping our streets safe'', adding: ''It's millions of doses of deadly substances that have been kept out of the veins of would-be drug users.''

Significantly, NSW police also seized more than $25 million worth of heroin. At the same time, a taxpayer-funded version of the drug is infiltrating the black market. The commander of the NSW drug squad, Nick Bingham, said: ''We're talking pharmaceutical-grade heroin. It's highly sought after in the drug-using community and, unfortunately, it is finding its way [onto the streets]. To be honest, police don't particularly want to have to target prescription opiates when there are other important things to tackle, such as organised crime.''

Inspector Bingham is part of the recently formed National Pharmaceutical Misuse Strategy Committee and said prescription opiates were ''high on the agenda … One of the discussion points is educating doctors in regards to prescriptions … there needs to be tighter scrutiny.'' The director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent's Hospital, Alex Wodak, agrees major reforms are needed to improve the way opiates are prescribed by the medical profession: ''The process needs to be far more discriminating, more realistic, more careful.

''GPs do the bulk of this work. They're under tremendous pressure and could do with better assistance from the whole system, whether it be from medicine doctors, psychiatrists, pain doctors or better guidelines tailored to them.''

Dr Wodak also referred to the ''long overdue'' national real-time database which, if implemented, could alert authorities when ''runners'' try to use multiple scripts at different chemists, at different locations.

''The Commonwealth seems interested in trying to get all the states to adopt a similar live system,'' he said. ''If we are serious about this issue, we have to form a national response.''

But Richard Mattick, from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, fears a crackdown could hit genuine pain sufferers.

''Let's not forget these medications are terribly important to the community,'' he said. ''If you have a loved one affected by cancer or serious pain, you want them to receive the best possible care and these medications are much better, much safer than anything previously available. The community is better served and, in a way, that has allowed prescribing to be more generous.

''The danger here is that we see the bad side but don't balance that against the need.''

Gideon Warhaft, of the NSW Users & AIDS Association, argues: ''There will always be people who inject drugs and there will always be people with narcotics dependencies. The positive advantage with OxyContin is that users know exactly what they're getting, whereas with heroin, they don't. Many now prefer OxyContin because it's clean and it's safer.''
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Link.

World first exclusive right here folks! Legal heroin being peddled by doctors! Tearing apart your community, breaking into your homes and staining the chastity of your virginal white daughers!
 
interesting article....thanks for posting it.

I've heard of doctor shopping but 46 doctors and 119 rx's? lol that guy could have made a small fortune
 
At least it's good to see that they are saying OC and other narcotics can be "heaven" for chronic pain sufferers. I know I'd be crippled to the point of not leaving the house most days (maybe even the bed or couch) if I didn't have narcotic drugs available to me.
 
^ One of the reasons why these kind of articles bother me. i would hate for restrictions to be tightened to the point where legitimate sufferers of pain can't get adequate pain relief due to hysteria over oxy.

The title of this article is really misleading also. I thought it would be about prescription heroin, not about doctor shoppers and OC.

I can imagine it is fucking hard to get oxy 80s from a doctor too. I know my doctors are pretty tight arsed when it comes to handing out benzos. I mean they are even getting thingy about stilnox. I imagine most doctors would be getting all sort of x-rays and the like done before they would hand out a strong script of oxy.

It seems to be a different story in the states. my girlfriend is american and recently had her wisdom teeth out. she got a script that contained oxycodone (abliet at a relatively small dose). When I had mine out I got given panadeine fort (30mg codeine, 500mg paracetemol). i had to supplement with neurofen plus and some weed in order to get adequate pain relief. This happened prior to me using codeine recreationally, so tolerance was not an issue. I think doctors are still pretty wary of giving strong opiates out in Australia.
 
^ It would be cool if we could get hydrocodone here as a mid-level pain killer. Because as much as I love codeine at the high doses I use it at, it is shit for pain relief when you are only meant to take 60mg. :\

We used to get hydrocodone here but then they stopped, not sure why.
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
interesting article....thanks for posting it.

I've heard of doctor shopping but 46 doctors and 119 rx's? lol that guy could have made a small fortune
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I was thinking the same thing holy shit.

This article doesn't make sense. People have always loved prescription opiates. Drug abuser or pain patient. It doesn't really matter. Most people dont mind getting a shot of morphine. So it's not like anything new is going on.

It seems like these people like the person that went to 46 Dr.s and got 119 prescriptions are the ones that need to be stopped. Not the normal people going and getting there pills for pain or pleasure.
 
What a stupid article, how the hell is it "legal heroin" exactly? The doctor shoppers are committing a crime IIRC and therefore it is only legal to those obtaining legitimate scripts from one doctor or a few that are aware the patient is being prescribed meds by the others. Even if its not strictly illegal to doctor shop I would call claiming a S8 prescription to be a legal substance a bit of a stretch.

Atleast they include some stuff about how helpful it is to pain patients and how you have to keep the bad in perspective with the good, but I can't help but feel any article peddling nonsense about "hillbilly heroin" (anyone ever heard ANYONE who has ever used opiates recreationally refer to OC as this? I haven't!) are doing people on pain management a real dis service.
 
^ yeh the only person I've ever heard refer to OC as "hillbilly heroin" was a cop. Must have been a slow news day hey? :/

Gideon Warhaft, of the NSW Users & AIDS Association, argues: ''There will always be people who inject drugs and there will always be people with narcotics dependencies. The positive advantage with OxyContin is that users know exactly what they're getting, whereas with heroin, they don't. Many now prefer OxyContin because it's clean and it's safer.''
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Spot on there.
 
Pretty typical article from the media...doesn't surprise me. At least they got that one guy to give his 2c from the Users/aids association.

I reckon the national real-time database is the way to go...where it links pharmacists, doctors to a live database that shows what's been prescribed recently so they can get a better feel if it's legitimate or not. At the moment it's a bit of a guessing game and actual pain sufferers are sometimes being treated like drug addicts...

Might be a good idea to link doctor visits, tests done, notes etc. onto a database as well. I don't think I'd mind this but haven't thought about it much and there's the privacy concerns.
 
every GP i've tried to get oxy off has told me they cant prescribe anything stronger than panedine forte or tramadol lol, always told i need to see a 'specialist' but they can't refer me.
so got no idea how this guy managed it...
 
Christ! said:
Pretty typical article from the media...doesn't surprise me. At least they got that one guy to give his 2c from the Users/aids association.

I reckon the national real-time database is the way to go...where it links pharmacists, doctors to a live database that shows what's been prescribed recently so they can get a better feel if it's legitimate or not. At the moment it's a bit of a guessing game and actual pain sufferers are sometimes being treated like drug addicts...

Might be a good idea to link doctor visits, tests done, notes etc. onto a database as well. I don't think I'd mind this but haven't thought about it much and there's the privacy concerns.
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That is probably where the future of pharmacy and the consumer end of medicine is heading, as well as probably tighter regulation and an effort to make everything centralized nationally rather then have a lot of different policies and practices across the states.

I mean, the authorities that monitor prescriptions for these type of drugs do their jobs fairly well but are limited by how the system works and so it does take them a while to catch on sometimes.
 
As a chronic pain sufferer, regulations are already painfully tight for those of us who need it for pain management. However I do not begrudge those who use the medication for other needs. Who am I to judge who really needs pain medication? Who is anyone to judge what another human being should be allowed for their treatment of anything?
 
hmm i saw this today at the shops, i wonder how these people get these scipts so easily, fucking difficult to just get vallies!
 
When you do it often enough to be a full-time job, you get pretty good at playing the system. Not that it's that hard if you find the right doctor/s ;)
 
i also think being in the demographic of young and male also fucks you over when it comes to getting opiates or benzos.

wish I could convince my mother to do some doctor shopping for me.
 
In the US the media termed the name of "hillbilly heroin" for OxyContin about 10+ years ago, becasue it was supposedly the "poor mans heroin/opiate, but OC use and abuse became rampant in the US among wealthy people,regualr people etc..to the point of it being so popular among teenagers and college aged people as well as middle aged people ,that in many place a 40mg OC tablet costs =$xx, and 80mh OC= $xx, but now the US drug maker of OxyContin has come out with a new much harder to "abuse formualtion" which is inferior to the old OC's in that it is weaker when used by chronic pain patients,compared to the old formulation, also the new " OP oxycontins" are certainly harder to abuse ,but they are also less effecient for the actual people that they are meant to help=pain suffers, and chronic pain suffers..IMO an 80mg OP (new version has OP on one side and the mg of the tablet on the other like 80 for example) gives about 50-60mg of oxycodone to a person taking it oraly as prescribed, this is just from what I have heard pain clinic patients that have had both the old ,better OxyContin,and the new OP Oxycontin!! I am lucky that when I had chronic pain for about 6 years I was prescribed the regular OxyContins as this was before the new OP ones came out,also I was prescribed methadone tablets in 30 mg per day, 3- 10 mg tablets per day total of 30mg of methadone. I do not know if methadone is used in Australia for pain management or used at all, but it is certainly was a great help for pain,as it lasted a very long time and so on..
 
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I would only think these otc painkillers would be sort after more than heroin when its hard to source, but from what i see there doesnt seem to be a H shortage well at least in sydney. Dont have to look hard to see junkies scoring in no where in particular or should i say the new certain locale. $50 a pill would make heroin a cheaper option too just like cigarettes and pot these days too...
 
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Amazed-Pi said:
At least with the S8 Opioids though, you know the exact dose in the pills so you can plan accordingly to avoid an overdose. Heroin on the other hand has random purity depending on where you obtain it, but that's obviously due to it being illegal.
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TRUE, i never thought of that, suppose cos opiates is not my D/O/C. It really is a problem for heroin users (unknown purity level)
 
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