Addictions new face
By Ken Raymond and Jim Killackey
The Oklahoman
Dec 12, 2005
The face of addiction has changed. For years, those untouched by the affliction could regard it as something that happened to nameless others lawbreakers on the fringes of society, people who willfully chose to seek escape or euphoria in the form of a powder pill or injection.
If that perception was ever right, it isnt now.
Today, you probably know someone who is abusing prescription painkillers. You may even know someone who is addicted to them.
You know them but you probably dont know about their problem.
Now, the face of addiction may be lined or wrinkled. Law enforcement officers say many abusers are older people, folks whose need for narcotics grew out of legitimate medical problems.
The face may be good-looking, unchanged by the ravaging effects associated with other drugs, such as methamphetamine. Many of todays addicts, experts say, are white-collar, educated people who work professional jobs and have families.
The face may be very familiar. It could belong to your spouse, parents, children or grandchildren.
In fact, it may be staring back at you from the mirror.
The first time was an accident.
Sometime around 1996, Gary Poole pulled a tray of baked chicken from his oven and was splattered by hot juices. His hand and wrist were burned, but he didnt think much of it until friends and co-workers urged him to see a doctor.
I walked into the emergency room, said Poole, 47, of Oklahoma City, and within three minutes my hand was in ice, I had a 25 cc shot of morphine, and this guys writing prescriptions for Percodan.
Thats when Poole, already an addict, entered a whole new stage of depravity. He began feigning injuries in order to get painkiller prescriptions.
Then, he said, he broke his own left thumb willfully, purposely positioning it under a board, then striking it with a hammer. Not just once, but on multiple occasions. He said he could tell it was broken when his hand went numb.
I literally burned myself to get more prescriptions, Poole said. You know, you walk in with a burn, even a small one, and its blistered no questions asked. Youre in the money. Youre in the big money. ... Ive never really told anyone about that before.
Self-mutilation, you know, thats pretty desperate. Thats someone whos lost everything.
Not quite. Poole still had at least one thing left to lose: his freedom.
That went next.
By then, Poole was twice divorced and swept up in a daily cycle of need. A salesman, hed turned his attention to physicians, convincing several doctors none of whom knew about the others to prescribe painkillers, he said.
At the end, I was taking 15 to 20 hydrocodone pills a day, he said. It was almost like clockwork. I would take five at breakfast, five at lunch, along with several during the day. Sometimes in the evening Id take four more and wash them down with most of a 12-pack.
I would get the drugs, but when I woke up in the morning it didnt matter what I had. I mean, I might have a full prescription bottle beside me. The question was, where am I going to get the next one, because I knew that bottle would be gone by the next morning.
Pooles doctor-shopping caught up with him. He was arrested for faking a broken arm in order to obtain painkillers. One week after he got out of jail, he was arrested for altering a prescription to make it seem he had a refill. And a few months later, he was arrested for altering a prescription to increase the dosage of a painkiller.
I can tell you honestly that the Oklahoma City police and county people charged me with three different incidents, for which I did get caught, Poole said. For those three, there were ... at least 200 to 300 they didnt get.
The arrests earned him some time in prison, he said, where participation in a treatment program helped him control his addiction.
Today, he attends an anonymous addiction program, works as unskilled labor and knows no matter how much pain he ever experiences, odds are he wont be able to take prescription narcotics.
He said hes grateful, though, that he has the chance to be involved in his daughters lives and tell his story to others. He hopes what happened to him will keep others from going down the same path.
I thought it was my best friend, Poole said, referring to hydrocodone. Now I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy.
Wow!!!
great Post...Thankyou for sharing it...
Hugs
Ali
great Post...Thankyou for sharing it...
Hugs
Ali
