That's bad enough, but the problem has spread beyond Florida's borders. Ms. van Zeller has just filed a follow-up report, "Gateway to Heroin," which shows how the illegal trade in pills is hitting the state of Massachusetts hard. Although MA is the state profiled, the problem is also in other states. People flock to Florida to get pills, mule them to MA or another state, and then sell them on the street where one pill can go for as much as $80.
Sadly, it's children who are mostly getting hooked on these big pharma painkillers. Teens turn to pills first because they're easy to get. They may even have them prescribed for them to treat an injury. The result is almost always the same: addiction to the pain killers, and then the realization that they can get heroin from the street, which is cheaper, and provides a better high.
There is no question that these drugs do vastly more harm than good, which begs the question, why aren't they scheduled the same as heroin or marijuana, both Schedule 1 drugs. The answer probably is that with this much demand, Oxycodone is far, far too much of a money maker for its manufacturer to ever be pull it from the market. Since pharma companies have big lobbies, they can advocate for themselves, and their drugs, in congress to keep them on the market. That's not going to change anytime soon.

Analgesics have their place in medicine, but with a rising personal toll happening across the country, it's time that we start looking for alternative therapies for treating pain, before we're all hooked.
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