While the government was busy busting pot growers in Mexico and burning poppy fields in Afghanistan, the entire illegal drug industry was changing, literally, under its nose.
Today, it’s prescription drugs that are killing our kids, addicting parents and turning seniors into junkies (and sometimes pushers).
“Crime Inc: Deadly Prescriptions,” reported brilliantly by Carl Quintanilla, details how prescription (read: legal) drugs have taken over the illegal drug trade. Getting stoned has never been easier.
All you need to do is go to any one of thousands of online pharmacies — where everything you could possibly want is available at the click of a mouse. Sitting in front of your computer sure beats driving to a scary neighborhood to score, hoping against hope you won’t get your head bashed in the process.
But some people love the danger of it all and, according to one of the DEA agents interviewed, “There is more vio lence in prescription drug trafficking in the last 10 years than there ever was before” with street drugs.
And what an industry it is.
In 1991, $160 million was spent on prescrip tion drugs on the In ternet. By 2003, it had risen to $3.2 billion.
And now? Between pain clinics and their at tached pharmacies, on line pharmacies and sleazy doctors who make $10 for every online pre scription they OK with the push of a button, it adds up to $100 billion per year.
How easy is it to score all those drugs? Easier than you ever imagined. Especially if you live in Broward County, Fla., where pain clinics are as plentiful as fast-food joints.
One doctor there was busted after writing 1,600 prescriptions for one client in a single day for legal drugs like OxyContin, Valium, Vicodin and Xanax.
These drugs — as addictive and as dangerous as heroin — are more readily used by kids, because they can find them in their parents’ medicine cabinets. They have to be safe — right? A doctor prescribed them.
That’s what all those dead celebrities thought, too. Now, most drug fatalities come from perfectly legal drugs.
Turn on, boot up, drop dead.