Times-News: Sullivan County has "epidemic" prescription abuse levels. (Memphis: middle-class, violent crime)

[Serious Conversation]

It's unusual for a local media outlet to have anything critical on the region, but lately the Times-News has been putting out more honest pieces, first in regard to the decline of Pennington Gap, VA and now this.

I've personally been witnessing the drug abuse epidemic. A close friend of mine who recently committed suicide was frequently overprescribed numerous medications by area physicians. At the time of his suicide, he was on over two dozen pills per day, and while the drugs may not have caused the suicide, they were contributing factors in his self-destructive behavior. The little CVS pharmacy in my neighborhood has been robbed twice in the last few months just for pills. This store has been here more than ten years and I can't remember any robberies happening until the past year or so.

That's not even mentioning all the arrests you see in the local papers for drugs. If you were a business or someone from outside the area considering east TN, wouldn't reports like this discourage you from coming here?


Prescription drug abuse at epidemic levels | Kingsport Times-News

[DubbleT]

Prescription Drug Abuse | The White House
You mean this is news for this area?

[jabogitlu]

This is a huge issue for the area. My parents' house, my cousin's house down the road from my parents', and several friends' houses have been broken into in Greene County. This is way out in the county, too. The pattern of what was taken points toward pill searches and/or hard cash (probably for buying pills).

I can name 6-7 people in my family (in the realm of 2nd and 3rd cousins) that are pillheads and were probably high today. I've had a second cousin and a third cousin die in car crashes while high. By far the biggest drugs in my high school (graduated in 2006) were prescription pills.

From my perspective, for the Northeast TN region, prescription drugs are a huge issue. The article was interesting, but it doesn't probe nearly far enough. Many honest people are being terrorized and stolen from in order to fuel this industry. Many creative, interesting people are wasting their lives and even dying because they are succumbing to the pill mill.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

This is a huge issue for the area. My parents' house, my cousin's house down the road from my parents', and several friends' houses have been broken into in Greene County. This is way out in the county, too. The pattern of what was taken points toward pill searches and/or hard cash (probably for buying pills).

I can name 6-7 people in my family (in the realm of 2nd and 3rd cousins) that are pillheads and were probably high today. I've had a second cousin and a third cousin die in car crashes while high. By far the biggest drugs in my high school (graduated in 2006) were prescription pills.

From my perspective, for the Northeast TN region, prescription drugs are a huge issue. The article was interesting, but it doesn't probe nearly far enough. Many honest people are being terrorized and stolen from in order to fuel this industry. Many creative, interesting people are wasting their lives and even dying because they are succumbing to the pill mill.

Would you say drug abuse is worse up here than in Memphis?

[DubbleT]

Prescription drug abuse has been rampant just about everywhere for a while now. What is new is the influx of people coming up from FL to fill their pain meds here. Memphis typically gets a lot of people from Arkansas.
The response by law enforcement here is better than in Memphis. They seem to take the problem more seriously, but then maybe the Memphis PD has their hands full with more violent crimes.

[jchometeam]

And by taking the problem more seriously, the police makes the local problem look worse on the official statistics than if it did nothing. At the end of the day, the police and court system can have a very limited effect on such issues

[BP72]

They just had a show on Drugs Inc. I think called Pill Nation. It has become bad enough that my Hometown was on it... Jacksonville, Fl. People going there to get the pills and bring them back up northward. When I was a LEO down there, we just had the normal drugs... pot, coke (and crack) and a little heroin. Guess they are adding another drug to the Title of "Drug Gateway to the US".

I have heard of people crushing pills and snorting them like coke but there were dudes even shooting it up with needles. Damn sad.

If you saw that Drugs Inc show.. it was funny when they were talking about Broward County (South Fla) but the images they were showing were Jacksonville (Duval... North Fla)

[Page2]

Originally Posted by Emigrations

It's unusual for a local media outlet to have anything critical on the region, but lately the Times-News has been putting out more honest pieces, first in regard to the decline of Pennington Gap, VA and now this.

Prescription drug abuse at epidemic levels | Kingsport Times-News

I guess it's just a matter of perspective but I've always thought there was quite a bit of coverage about the local drug problem.

I remember a Times-News story almost 20 years ago that quoted then DA Greely Wells saying there was a major drug problem in the area - not prescription drugs at that time - and the main reason was many middle-class residents didn't see anything wrong with recreational drug abuse. In the past couple of years the number of reports in all local media about meth and prescription drug abuse was chided as a deterrent to efforts to attract retirees.

During a recent trade group meeting I heard Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey say the area's drug problem had gotten so far out of had that it would be the focus of area lawmakers during the next session. The Times-News report on that meeting focused on the drug abuse issue before listing the other topics discussed.

[TNGal78]

The doctor's offices I have worked for always ran pharmacy background checks (every narcotic you purchase goes into a database) on people wanting narcotics or pain killers and RARELY prescribed them. You had to have something very serious to get the high powered stuff. More likely than not you were going to get a rx for Advil or Celebrex which totally pissed patients off who were pillheads. I've seen many a doctor get cursed out and then fire a patient because they were abusive to the staff. I've been scared to death of patients before. So it isn't always a doctor issue where the drs are over prescribing. These pill heads will have multiple doctors in every city. Yes it is a huge problem but doctors are fighting back. At least, in my opinion. The offices I worked for had signs saying that we did not deal with pain management. Pill heads will try every trick in the book to get the meds. I have seen the doctors print off several pages of narcotics purchases and show them to the patient....and then the patient storms out of the office because they are busted. Then again, I saw patients with cancer or a serious illness who were in dire need of these kinds of medications because they were suffering. These patients were always urine tested to make sure they were , indeed, taking the medication. I, myself, take an anti anxiety medication (NOT xanax) and I have to be pee tested before I can get a new prescription. You can tell if someone is resisting the pee test.......usually guilty of selling, not taking !