Then there are those doctors who have let morality slide altogether by essentially turning their medical practices into drug dealing zones – like the one Hoffman used to see who would greet him with a shot of Demerol and leave him with 45 Vicodin for the cool price of $60. And there are the chronically ill at the bottom rung of the economic scale – low-income people suffering from, say, cancer or AIDS – who don’t want or need all their pills, so they unofficially unload them onto the highest bidder. Bryce has bought drugs at a street intersection in San Francisco known as “Pill Hill” where a group of homeless people have set up such an exchange, and in New York, Young’s friend recently sold a computer to a cancer sufferer on Craig’s List who offered to pay in Percocet.
So who exactly is to blame for the prescription pill epidemic? Though some blame greedy pharmaceutical companies for pushing their risky medications onto a naïve public, any chronic pain sufferer whose agony has been lessened by a drug like OxyContin would surely argue that these pills are absolutely imperative. Others claim that putting an end to prescription fraud and online pharmacies isn’t a high enough governmental priority, but the federal government has been reasonably successful in dealing with prescription fraud: in California, all prescriptions now have to be written on special tamper-proof pads, whether they’re Schedule II Drugs like OxyContin, morphine, Methadone, Demerol, Percocet and amphetamines, or Schedule III Drugs like Vicodin. (Schedule I drugs are those with the highest abuse potential and no accepted medical use, like heroin.) Additionally, efforts are constantly being made to close down Internet pharmacies: last April, the DEA arrested 20 people in eight US cities and four foreign countries that were selling drugs on more than 200 websites.
The simple fact is that no matter how educated and prepared doctors, government officials, pharmaceutical representatives and users are, people looking for a buzz are going to find a way to get it. Even if they hear a thousand stories about those that had and lost everything because of their utter devotion to something the size of their fingernail, folks enjoying the high are going to assume it can’t happen to them until they hit rock bottom, and everyone defines “bottom” differently. “People who take pain pills don’t consider themselves drug addicts,” says Kenji, who goes on to describe a couple he knows who were “normal” people who took pills for fun. “They started taking more over time and went from living in a beautiful five-bedroom house to living in a car, and they didn’t think they had a problem,” he reveals. “She got caught forging a prescription and they still didn’t think they had a problem. Now they’re getting locked up. I can’t imagine what their bottom is going to be.”
Until then, people are going to use these seemingly benign drugs as a way of killing whatever emotional pain comes with day-to-day living. “It’s like, ‘I got this Vicodin from my doctor and it makes me feel good and think less about my life,’” says Dr. Kirim.
Austin Bryce, who still has plenty more of those Paris-procured extra-strength codeine to help him through his days, is both serious and playful when he analyzes his chemical interests. “I really enjoy feeling numb,” he says, then adds, “I’m a bored suburban kid. What do you expect?”
*Some names and places in this story have been changed
