Lexington, KY - Seventy percent. Seven out of every 10. Of all the cases I defended as a criminal defense attorney in one year, 70 percent of drug-related cases dealt with prescription pill abuse. If starting from 100 percent, like your high school math test, maybe only your parents would take notice. But we are starting from zero, and it's imperative that we all take notice of this epidemic.
In July 2010, I began taking conflict criminal cases from the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) - "If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you," and those attorneys come from DPA. Sometimes DPA has a conflict, which means they cannot represent the person for one reason or another. In those situations, they appoint what are commonly known as conflict attorneys. I participated as a conflict attorney for one year. Almost immediately, I was struck by the number of cases I got where the defendant was addicted to prescription pills and their crime was motivated by that addiction.
I consider a case drug-related if drugs motivate it. This includes the obvious crimes of possession and trafficking in controlled substances, and it also includes crimes such as burglary, robbery, forged checks, and any other offense where the motivation behind the crime is the future acquisition of drugs.
In one year, I defended 62 cases. Of the 38 drug-related cases, 27, or 70 percent, involved prescription pill addiction. Think about that - legal pain pills, as opposed to marijuana, crack, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, mushrooms or methamphetamine. Seventy percent.
It is a shocking figure, but even if you don't know the numbers, the problem is evident. I had a couple of clients from other states who remarked, "What's wrong with everyone down here? They're all on pills."
Many of these clients, or defendants as some call them, began their addictions with a prescription for a legitimate injury - complications from childbirth, a fall from a roof, major surgery. They had a legitimate need for pain medicine. And at some point, the pain subsided, but the need did not. That was when they bought a ticket on the pain train.
The pain train is the name that police, prosecutors and defense attorneys have given to the caravan of people traveling to Florida from the surrounding states to get pain medicine. People go to Florida because the laws that regulate the prescribers are extremely relaxed, allowing a "patient" to acquire pain medicine without having to demonstrate that they are in pain. Some people go to Florida on their own; others travel in large groups that are sponsored by someone who stays in Kentucky, waiting for their shipment to return. The patients pay cash, provide little to no verification of legitimate need, and roll out flush with Oxycodone. I have even heard stories of taking an old MRI to meet a doctor in a Starbucks parking lot, to make out with a prescription for 100 Oxy pills.
The people on the pain train start popping pills immediately and begin the drive back to Kentucky, dosing the whole way. They only stay long enough to get the drugs.
The New York Times recently reported that 89 percent of the Oxycodone sold in the United States in 2010 was sold in Florida. The population of Florida represents only 6 percent of the entire county. The Sunshine State is worth its weight in gold - if you measure worth by the milligram and put Oxycodone on the periodic table.
This is a unique problem for the criminal justice system. It is illegal to possess illegal drugs; it is illegal to sell illegal drugs. We all know that. But it is not illegal to possess prescription drugs with a valid prescription, even if it is from another state. And obviously, doctors are licensed to prescribe. A doc without a political agenda who finds himself in the face of a seemingly unending stream of Benjamin Franklins can broadly define the Hippocratic Oath.
And the families, those close to the addict, are also uniquely situated, when compared with the families of addicts of illegal drugs. If a member of your family did cocaine until all hours, or came home scratching meth wounds, you would know immediately. You would know you should take action immediately. But if a member of your family took a prescribed medication, how long before you recognized a problem? How would you know when the pain had been replaced by the addiction?
Prescription drugs aren't debilitating; they don't distinguish the user until it's too late. The cops can't arrest someone for taking too many of their legitimately prescribed medicine. Addiction isn't illegal, but the fallout leads to criminal activity. Some addicts sell off a portion of their pills to support the habit, which is of course illegal for them to do as they aren't licensed physicians. Some addicts forge checks to get money to buy more pills. Some, unfortunately, burglarize and rob.
There have been efforts to combat this epidemic. Kentucky has the KASPER system that tracks prescriptions filled in this state. And a national system is in place (NASPER), but it has never received any funding. Lawmakers have put pressure on Florida to pass laws that will help prevent this from continuing, and changes were recently enacted. But the pain train is still on the tracks.
Of my 27 clients with prescription pill problems, I cannot recall a single one who didn't spend time in jail. And almost all of them now have felonies on their records. To the best of my knowledge, no doctors were prosecuted. Is it justice to imprison the prescription pill addict who gets them from licensed physicians? Is that the person you want in prison? Or are you interested in the doctor standing in the Starbucks parking lot, holding an old MRI to the shining sun, issuing prescriptions for Oxy to your family member? Not to say that the "patients" don't bear some responsibility, especially when they commit sometimes very serious crimes, but should they bear all the responsibility? Or is there a better way to address this issue that doles out justice while simultaneously helping to stop the cycle? It is time to derail the pain train.
Attorney Katherine Paisley can be reached at 859-233-4441 or katherine@paisleylaw.org.