Activity 6- OxyContin Express

Oxycontin Express was a very interesting documentary about Florida becoming a pill popper’s paradise and how Florida is the main source of an illicit prescription pipeline. I was actually quite shocked after watching this documentary because I had no idea that Florida was so lenient on prescription drugs and that there were so many pain clinics, especially in Broward County.I think that Florida being as liberal on prescribing pain pills as it is presented in this documentary is absolutely unacceptable and it is a huge problem. I was also really shocked to find out that people come from all over the United States to get these prescriptions because they cannot get this type of prescription in their home state. I thought it was ridiculous that the prescription drug abuse capital of the US-Kentucky- got most of their prescriptions filled in Florida because they could not get as many pills in Kentucky. Additionally, I could not believe that these pain clinics were essentially legal drug dealers that prescribed huge amounts of strong pain pills to people that seemed to not even need it. I do not know how these doctors are okay with prescribing these types of drugs to people they know have to be addicts. After watching this video, I read more on the governor’s stance on the issue. I cannot believe that Governor Rick Scott let this type of thing go on in his state just because he thought that some type of prescription monitoring program was an infringement on citizens’ rights and would violate their privacy.

   It would be difficult to enact a policy that would completely stop the pill pipeline that stretches from Ft. Lauderdale to Appalachia. However, the policy would have to start with Florida. Florida needs to become a little more conservative on their prescriptions and enact a policy that stops doctor shopping and the amount of pain clinics that can be in one area. Additionally, I think there needs to be a policy in place that holds the doctors of these clinics accountable for what they are prescribing. I think there needs to be a policy in place that limits the prescribing of medicine to those people that are from out of the state. Finally, I think there needs to be a policy in place that establishes the extent of pain patients need to be in in order to get these medications prescribed.

This documentary relates to class material because it shows one way these users and addicts are getting these types of drugs that we learn about in class. I think this documentary is a great example of how addictive and dangerous these drugs can be.