LifeRedux

to slap the label "Criminal" on someone with no priors, that does not sell and has done something along the lines of "purchasing 2-3 pills" (which can carry up to 10 years), etc.

I'm overly curious about this. How can you call something a disease, have clinics all over to TREAT THIS DISEASE, but if someone is found purchasing less than 5 pills still face up to a DECADE in prison with no detox, nothing. If anything, the system .... 10 years later will turn out an institutionalized person unable to function outside of the penal system.

I totally understand that circumstances vary for every case. I believe dealers should get harsher punishments because even if they are addicted, nobody made them deal. As with addicts, if they moved on to stealing to fuel their habit, nobody made them do that... You can only blame addiction for so many things. This Question is complicated... I am simply discussing the Mom or Dad that runs out of their script early, buys a few pills and BOOM, facing 10 years in jail.

If this is the case, then we should never allow the "insanity" plea in murder cases, etc. It just seems easier to dump all over addicts in my opinion.

Justfor1

I often asked that question myself. When overweight diabetic people are buying a cake at the supermarket late at night, there is no "food police" that jumps out & arrests them. These people end up in the hospital probably as much as addicts. But I learned that you cant fight the laws of this country & win. Not every alcoholic/drug addict is a criminal. But some are. I have known people who were hard core addicts & were dangerous people as well. People whose only job resume was robbery. Some addicts need to be in prison & not treatment. Not sure if I helped but hope I give you something to think about.

finaltime

That is so scary to think about... I wouldn't know how I would've dealt with getting caught, and I bought more pills on the street than I have bought candy. I don't think 10 years is resonable, is there anyway you can file an appeal? Wow, 10 years is so long....sorry...

LifeRedux

I hear you, but that is like creating a country with laws based on "if some are, lets punish everyone". Yes, I'm one of those people that has never wronged anyone or stolen when my script ran out early and I don't think it makes me better or worse, but if you call it a disease, treat it like one. If the person is caught red-handed dealing or stealing-- deal with that and charge them with theft, dealing or whatever law they broke, but if it's their first time in "drug court"-- give them a chance to get better. Give them resources they never had before. (While still going after the other offenses) I don't think addiction should be an EXCUSE for anything, but I do think addiction should be treated as such (a disease) unless a person habitually rejects treatment and continues to break the law). Does that make sense? It just cranks my nerves. Mostly what morals I have left, but sadly, The LAW (fear) is the only reason I've never done anything illegal and chosen to detox more times than I care to recall instead of buying meds from the street because I'm totally paranoid of jail time, courts, being arrested. I was browsing a site that had a bunch of random news stories in the left column and some poor 70 year old man was arrested for trying to purchase three pills and the courts are going after the maximum sentence...which will put him getting out of jail at 81 if he isn't cut a break. Do you guys even know how much it costs tax payers per year to house a non-violent, elderly offender? ($19,469 per inmate/per year, and the price varies depending upon age and medical problems)... (This just upsets and confuses me).

And why is it only that rich people or people with good health insurance can afford the quality in-house drug programs? I know they are available in many states, but they are very grim in others like Florida.

Justfor1

Life, you have to understand that the laws can be misleading. For example, in Cook County (Chicago) possession of a controlled substance is a class 4 felony punishable by 1-3 yrs in prison. But the reality is that first timers with clean records will get a type of drug probation for a few years & not go to jail/prison if they complete it. Prisons don't have room to incarcerate an elderly man buying a few pills for 10yrs. Heck, in my area they give probation to gang bangers caught carrying illegal guns! My personal experience is that I've had 3 DUI's & never served any jail time. The "mandatory jail time" for my last one was even waived by the judge.

steven71

Well, I've known a few people who have gotten busted (first/second offense) with small amounts of pills, none of them spent more than a couple days in jail. If you have no priors, the likelihood of doing serious time is low. Florida seems to be pretty tough of addicts though. The irony in that is for many years, they had these store front pain clinics handing out unbeliavable amount of narcotics to people. All you have to do is watch OxyContin Express on Youtube and you can tell something isn't right! I knew guys that would drive down there just to get scripts, this is when I lived in Ky, 900 miles! This was years ago though. I'm assuming they've cracked down on that by now and put in a PMP.

I've never understood the way the legal system treats addicts either, it's unseemly. I know if you're making an effort to sober up, treatment, NA or whatver, it's likely to work in your favor.

LifeRedux

Yes, Florida was one of the last to do it, but we went live with NAMSDL in September of 2011. There wasn't a big public announcement about it, so many people didn't know and quite a few "Doctor Shoppers" are finding themselves in hot water as they carried on with that behavior month after month and it caught up with many of them. The DA isn't screwing around when it comes to that stuff.

These "pain clinics" seem to have 1 or 2 shutting down on a daily basis. I'm actually glad they finally activated the system. There was a huge problem down here for people dying of cancer, in their end-stage, last weeks of life having trouble filling their legit scripts or having to pay 6.00 per pill at Mom/Pop pharmacies because they had no other choice. Since NAMSDL was activated, this seems to be less of a problem.

I was on another forum last week that has a sobriety section, but people on there aren't really talking about being sober and a few from Florida are actually considering moving to Washington because they are one of the only places with an inactive PMP because the state budget didn't have the room to operate it. THAT is hard-core addiction.

MycoolFitz

Well, I found out in my recent in-patient placement that Medicare has its own bias. I was placed in the psych unit because Medicfare would pick up 100% of the cost. If I had been on the A&D unit 0% would be covered. I quess the logic is people don't choose to be nuts but do choose to be alcoholics and addicts. Very sad and discriminating and even on the psych unit it was frustrating. I was discharged against the wishes of my therapists because Medicare decided they'd paid enough although I had hardly dented my coverage. Nice to be told you're being discharged because of insurance not because you're ready to go.

steven71

We have a system in place here but from what I've gathered, very few doctors actually use it. My sister is in medical school and has never heard of it. I believe it was only put into place 18 months ago. I know my pain management clinic uses it though. When I was living in Kentucky, almost every doctor (seemingly) used it and plenty of people were going to jail on doctor shopping charges but mainly, these were folks who has been given three strikes (at least) I was caught red-handed over ten years ago but I stopped immediately, they typically won't bother with someone who is willing to change. The same could (perhaps) be said for an addict who gets caught with a handful of pills. Any clear thinking judge is not going to sentence an addict (first offender) to years in prison for a few pills, especially if he/she is willing to get help. That's not to say that you couldn't end up in jail for a couple weeks, I don't imagine a cold turkey in jail would be pleasant.

Yea, people who are truly sick and need pain medication should not have to be concerned with filling a script. Glad Fla finally got it together.