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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:21 pm
Time: 10:21 pm
Results for prescription drug abuse (new jersey, u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: New Jersey Commission of Investigation Title: Scenes from an Epidemic: A Report on the SCI’s Investigation of Prescription Pill and Heroin Abuse Summary: Stopping regularly in downtown Newark, the nondescript minivans drew a select clientele: homeless Medicaid recipients and drug addicts who had been told by flyers and word-of-mouth where to wait for a ride. Ten miles and 15 minutes later, they arrived at a strip mall “medical center” on Main Avenue in neighboring Passaic where a doctor licensed by the State of New Jersey quickly got down to the business of cursory examinations and bogus diagnoses. Then he wrote prescriptions for powerful painkillers, sedatives and cough syrup, which his “patients” could use themselves or sell on the street, their choice. They also left with $10 cash gift cards as thanks for coming in. The bill for it all went to government health insurance, which funneled a fortune in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements into the bank accounts of the hidden entrepreneurs the doctor fronted for – associates of Russian organized crime. The flagrant and unbridled operation of this pill mill and others like it, the descent of sworn medical professionals into outright drug dealers, the intrusion of organized crime and other criminal elements into lucrative recesses of the health-care industry to feed an epidemic of demand for drugs: These are among the key findings of the State Commission of Investigation’s ongoing probe of illegal trafficking in and abuse of prescription painkillers and other addictive narcotics. Even as law enforcement authorities, public-health officials, social workers, treatment counselors, schools and families redouble their efforts to combat the purveyors and consequences of this predatory scourge, it continues to evolve in ways that few could have imagined when the so-called war on drugs was launched more than four decades ago. Staggering amounts of legitimate medicines manufactured by major pharmaceutical companies and intended for those needing relief from the pain of disease and injury have been diverted into criminal enterprises founded on drug abuse and addiction. What once was a menacing background narrative centered narrowly around subculture-based substances like opium, morphine and heroin has exploded into a mainstream horror story whose first chapter often begins with pill bottles in the average household medicine cabinet. Some medical management companies with names that incorporate benign terms like “pain management” and “wellness” have transformed street-corner drug-dealing into an orderly and seemingly ordinary business endeavor, except for the hidden financial backing from individuals linked to organized crime, the multiple bank accounts for money-laundering, the expert help of corrupt physicians and the shady characters who recruit and deliver customers and provide security. Meanwhile, conventional drug dealers – those tied to criminal street gangs and similar criminal enterprises – exploit legitimate businesses like used car dealerships, clothing outlets, barber shops, bars and liquor stores to cover their illicit retail commerce. They take advantage of advanced computers, communications and social networking technologies to facilitate criminal activities and thwart law enforcement. And they are finding new ways to profit from a market hungry for addictive drugs stretching well beyond New Jersey’s cities and into the outlying affluence of its suburbs and rural communities. On the demand side, witnesses told the Commission during an unprecedented public hearing that, given the shared properties of pain-numbing, high-inducing substances known as opiates and opioids, the widening abuse of prescription pills containing Oxycodone and related chemical ingredients has triggered a new and sustained rise in use of the original opiate of choice – heroin. Indeed, with high-quality heroin readily available on New Jersey streets today at roughly the same price as a pack of cigarettes – cheaper than painkilling pills of similar strength and effect – it should be no great surprise that the road to addiction has evolved fullcircle. And all too often ensnared in this harrowing, potentially lethal cycle – in many instances before they, or their families, even know it or suspect it – are adolescents, teenagers and twenty-somethings, young people on their way to becoming a new lost generation of what used to be called junkies. Also, much of what used to take place “underground” in the drug milieu is now happening in plain sight. With the advent of instantaneous communication technology and suburban demand, a handful of pills or a bag of heroin is only a text message or cell-phone call away as many dealers now deliver product to customers waiting in shopping-mall parking lots. Former suburban high school students told the Commission that the depth of their prescription pill and heroin dependency played out in full view of teachers and other adults who they said did not seem to have a clue or even care when they nodded off and fell asleep in class, day after day. During a three-week surveillance operation at several major intersections in downtown Trenton, Commission investigators observed a bustling open-air drug market daily during morning rush hour within blocks of New Jersey’s Statehouse. Law enforcement authorities are quite familiar with the spiking collateral damage from this disturbing trend: the thefts and violence, the burglaries, armed robberies, pharmacy holdups and worse. Elsewhere on the frontlines, drug treatment facilities are seeing record numbers of admissions for heroin and other opiate/opioid addictions. Details: Trenton: New Jersey Commission of Investigation, 2013. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 13, 2013 at: http://www.nj.gov/sci/pdf/PillsReport.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.nj.gov/sci/pdf/PillsReport.pdf Shelf Number: 129390 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug MarketsDrug TraffickingHeroinOrganized CrimePrescription Drug Abuse (New Jersey, U.S.) |