There is a story in my local county paper. Last August, a Pharmacist for the Happy Harry's Drug Store chain was fired because of hugh discrepencies in Oxycontin and other schedule II narcotic inventories. Anyway, he was fired and admitted to having a problem. He plead guilty to a theft scheme that provided him with thousands of pills of prescription narcotics over a two-ywar period.

In a nutshell, the 30 year old man started taking Oxycontin in the summer of 2002 for backpain. He said that within one month of his hire as the head pharmacist, he was taking four pills a day. He also started snorting oxycodone, ritalin and dextroamphetamine. He said that he was doing so much Oxy, that he had to snort ritalin and other 'uppers' to keep him from falling asleep. He faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail and a $25,000 fine. He has agreed to make restitution to Happy Harry's for $58,965. His co-workers said that they often saw this guy with a white powdery substance in his nose.

He told the court that he was pleading guilty because he was guilty and because it was in his best interest to do so.

He is alleged to have stolen over 2,000 Oxy pills. He was manually going into the computer inventory system and altering inventory levels.

When he confessed, he told authorities that he was addicted to Oxycontin and that he had been taking more than 10 of the 80-mg pills a day for about 9 months! 800 MILLIGRAMS OF OXYS A DAY!!!

Damn shame how the drugs get you. But, we all know that or you wouldn't be reading this.

Fight the good fight.

Phil

Hi Phil,

How are you doing these days? Hope all is well with you.

That article you mentioned sure is interesting. It is so sad to hear how drugs can take over someone's life like that. It is also amazing how much money a person will spend, too. Last night I attended an NA meeting with my friend & her daughter (her daughter was just released from a 60-day rehab stay). During one of the breaks, I explained to one of the guys that the reason I enjoy sitting in on their meetings is because it sheds so much light for me with regard to my husband's addiction...what he's going through, etc. It also helps me to maintain some degree of compassion now that I have a better understanding of his behaviors & what may be causing them.

The guy asked me what my husband was abusing and I told him oxycontin. He asked me how much he takes and I said that I wasn't 100% certain - but that his friend told me that 3 years ago, he was taking about 3 pills during their workday alone. His friend had no idea what he took after their work hours but could only guess that in the past 3 years, my husband's tolerance for the drugs has surely increased and even he couldn't guess how much my husband could be taking at this point. He did express a concern to me that the amount has to be so high that he fears one day my husband just won't wake up.

The guy at the NA meeting told me of a friend of his who is also addicted to the oxycontin. He told me the guy has spent about $10,000 buying them in the last month and a half alone! That figure was staggering to me as well, just like the figure from your article. Thanks for sharing the article.

Again, I hope that all is well for you. I want to thank you again for directing me to this board because it has really been a lifeline for me.

Best wishes,
Scared Wife

I've been OK. I recently was clean for 12 days from doing anything except drinking a few beers. Then I did a 20mg oxy and then about 40mgs the next day. I was clean for a day and then did another 20mg.

For me, the road to recovery has been climbing a mountain then stumbling down a hill. Climbing another mountain and then sliding back down another hill. The progresses are better than the failures or relapses and I can feel myself getting better pshycologically.

The mental dependency right now is the hardest for me. When I take an Oxy, I feel very good and happy and loving and at ease and comfortable. When I don't, I am grumpy, snippy, short fused. This will all pass, I know.

The positive thing about my problem is that it is very small comparatively. I only take maybe 20mgs at a time or per day and not hugh amounts. I had been taking between 100 - 140mgs daily and the withdrawls from that were very bad.

Anyway, good luck with your struggles and fight the good fight.

Phil