One in 50 prescriptions written for addiction prescription painkillers is filled for so-called doctor shopping, where from there, the doctor shopper sells it to big dealers or sells the pills on the street. It’s been studied and confirmed that dealers are doctor shopping to get their products to sell. Essentially, doctor shopping is when a dealer, or someone who “works” for the drug dealer, goes in and lies to a physician to get addictive prescription drugs to sell, and even multiple prescriptions from different physicians- hence the term doctor shopping. Not only are dealers doing this, but users are found to be doing this as well, so they can save money and time from buying the painkillers on the streets.
Doctor Shopping Laws
New York just came out with a new law for doctor shopping back in May, called I-STOP. I-STOP is intended to stop the abuse and widespread availability (including re-sale) of prescription painkillers and drugs. According to New York state health officials, this law has already reduced 75% of its doctor shopping, which will hopefully start to decrease the already increased painkiller overdose death rates. In 2011, more than 2,000 New Yorkers died from prescription painkiller overdoses (this was the last year of available data) and the rate of drug overdoses continues to rise. Other than New York, 15 other states in the US have mandatory prescription monitoring programs, but that’s not enough. There is a giant hole in our prescription control system that needs to somehow be filled to get these addictive prescription painkillers off of the streets. Painkillers have been known to be a gateway drug to a much harder and more dangerous opiate, heroin. Painkillers to heroin is a common transition, due to heroin being much cheaper and more “potent” to its users. But because of doctor shopping, fentanyl has been found recently in heroin, in return making the overdose death rates soaring through the roof. It’s believed that the fentanyl heroin is what killed Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Opiate Treatment
In 2008, prescription painkillers killed more than 15,000 people due to accidental overdoses. It just takes “one more time” for an accidental overdose to occur, which has happened to many addicts throughout the US. The disease of addiction is a serious matter than should not be taken lightly, and knowing that there is help available is a good reason to hold on. By asking for help, you not only get to beat your addiction, but you get to have your life back. These overdose ratings are continuing to rise, and a lot of them result from doctor shopping when you think about it. By ending doctor shopping, getting rid of the dealers and the supply, we all have a chance to step in on painkiller addiction and hopefully cause a major decrease in overdose deaths. Get your life back today and call for help if you or someone you know is struggling at (866) 323-6590.
