More than 17,000 people are dying every year in the United States from opioid overdoses. Emergency room admissions for opioids other than heroin leaped from 299,000 in 2001 to 885,000 in 2011 and are still growing. Narcotics, once limited to acute pain after injury and surgery and terminal illnesses, have made a comeback for two reasons: Younger clinicians lack the addiction awareness of their older peers, and the drug industry has pushed them.
As problems with addiction and diversion of opioids (also called narcotics) surfaced in the 1960s and 1970s, regulations were put in place to restrict their use and tighten their control. But by the 1990s, the pendulum had swung back, thanks to new pills like OxyContin and the profit motive.
Soon “pill mills” and “pain clinics” proliferated dispensing opioid painkillers with few questions asked. Some had armed guards, which should have been a tip-off. The pill mills usually required no appointments, took no insurance, and gave only cursory attention to medical records and physical examinations. One Florida mill lured 12 doctors to its operation who made $37,500 a week—at $100 per prescription.
