The Impact of Online Pharmacies on the Average American Drug User/Experimenter

[Richard_smoker]

Hey guys, this is just a compilation of some things that have been on my mind and all over the not-quite-mainstream media for the last few years. I happen to have a pretty clear vantage point from which i've been witness to some pretty outrageous shifts in the area of drugs being funneled into the community through gray-market, illegal, and otherwise shady, 'fly-by-night' online pharmacies over the last 12 or so years. Please don't be too critical of it, as I haven't established a very strong opinion of it myself--but as you'll see i have my ideas and a few criticisms. -DICK

There has been a giant shift in the American way since the late 90's. with the long-unregulated internet pharmacy epidemic that began appearing around 1996 (that's when i first discovered them--perhaps there is more solid historical knowledge out there). Ever since that first began, the essential currency of the internet pharmacy business has always been hydrocodone--lortabs, vicoden, watsons, norcos, whatever you prefer to call them.

i know that in the early days it was as simple as finding the right pharmacist willing to take the risk, and who wanted to make a quick $$800,000.00 and instantly, you had a viable, powerful, synthetic opioid 'hook-up' who was operating just outside the practices of traditional, accepted medicine.

The DEA and law enforcement would interject here and say that NO, these companies have ALWAYS been operating on the WRONG side of the law. They have been illegal since day #1. It has just taken 12 years for them to succeed at shutting them down.

OK, fine. Call it whatever you like, but when these businesses are cropping up right and left, all over the net, and there are literally MILLIONS of pills being shipped out all over this country every single day via UPS, FedEx and USPS, essentially for nothing more than a simple 'finders fee', a quick credit card or cash transfer of anywhere from $100 to $250 for a #100 to #120 pills will 2-3 refills available every 25 days by calling the 800 number, and i have yet to see confirmed reports of a single actual arrest of 'patients'(users) following one of these transactions, you're basically setting yourself up for the biggest 'fall' off chemical-induced blindness since prohibition.

Now granted, these pill-mills have slowly but surely been put largely out of business. But they still exist for now. Despite a new law that claims it will make any and all prescriptions invalid without a face-to-face visit with the doctor effective federally, and nationwide by April 2009...

I mean this was just too fuckin simple if you ask me. Granted, I found my rat caught up in the free-for-all probably as much as anyone else who didn't find themselves fallen completely down and into being broke and bankrupt from various simultaneous COD's, money orders, credit card purchases that constituted what has become known as "double-dipping"--when a "patient" visits two or sometimes as many as 10+ doctors or online pharmacies trying to procure the same drugs from all of them.

There are some things that I hesitate to put here for the world to scrutinize, but suffice it to say that I'm pretty sure that since the street prices of these drugs seemed to remain extremely high (~$5/10mg lortab), that so-called street dealers were replenishing their supplies from these so-called online doctors. Just do the math real quick--for the last 12+ years, the drugs have been available in plentiful supply for about $1.00 to $1.50 and they have consistently found street values of 4-5x that. (BY THE WAY, THIS IS NO LONGER VALID--IT REFLECTS A FORMER EQUILIBRIUM IN THE MARKET PRICING THAT CAN BE FOUND BY SEARCHING THE NET--I'LL TAKE DOWN THE DOLLAR ESTIMATES IF SOMEONE OBJECTS)

Doesn't take a genius to figure out who's been making the money off this rogue enterprise. A brief search of so-called online-pharmacy watchdog forums (patient/user advocacy forums) will reveal that there has been an almost unanimous approval of ONE COMPANY'S product over all others! ONE COMPANY! This is NOT BULLSHIT!

Just about any hydro-conneseiur probably knows exactly what company i'm talking about.

Well, I saw a pharmacist's newsletter back in 2006 showing the most prescribed, most-filled drugs in the USA for the entire year. Hydrocodone 7.5's and 10's made by 2 different manufacturers were the #1 prescribed drug and #4. OUT OF ALL THE DRUGS PRESCRIBED BY EVERY PRESCRIBER, COMPILED FROM EVERY FILLING, REGISTERED PHARMACIST IN THE ENTIRE NATIONS!!

That beats Viagra, blood pressure pills, cholesterol meds, heart medications, blood thinners, muscle relaxers, benzos, anti-depressants of every shape and size, anti-epileptics, everything. There was NO OTHER MED that made it into the top-ten twice!

As any of us knows who have been there before, it usually takes something massive to jar us into taking the plunge and trying to quit... there's no doubt in my mind that there have already been a great deal of addicts created by that loophole and who will be left high-and-dry come April...and many of them have already been hung out to face finding stronger, more-effective, more efficient, more 'traditional' synthetic opiod-narcotics from first their medical communities (which usually leads to being disappointed) and secondly seeking out shadier sources on the streets and deeper into the criminal element of the internet.

The sudden surge in popularity of buprenorphine therapies has addressed this problem to a degree, but i cringe to think about where this train will eventually lead to in the next 2, 5, or 10 years. I certainly hope that buprenophine can live up to the massive expectations that people have instilled in it and the unbelievable hype that big pharma has touted...

...in the end, i say that it's still an opiate. and i believe that it's far more powerful than most people realize. I am trying to remain positive and i'll get off this soapbox now before i incur the wrath of amins for bringing up my own scepticisms. Suffice it to say that the only way to be sure that you're really receiving everything life has to offer you in terms of enjoyment, satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness, you must first allow the brain to completely equilibrate, and unfortunately this does mean coming clean off all narcotics. and for buprenorphine users, i'm afraid that eventually everyone must 'pay the piper'--for them, it will be clearing out all the mu-opiate receptor blockade so that they can begin to re-experience life for all the beauty and richness that it has to offer.

-DICK

Reputation Comments on this post:

damn....another good post!

[rokman nash]

Dick from Daves personal experience(my friend) I can tell you he picked up to many fedex's to count for "friends". Simple transaction done EVERY day.I know that at this point the gov is closing in but dont be suprised if a sudden loophole develops.


As far as the sub/seb situation(not good w/chem names),From Daves seat the people he knows that are in a program (3-4),they have been in for well over a year.Its a bullshit stopgap for when you can't score. There I said it. I was under the impression that you weened quickly to MINIMIZE the discomfort caused from w/d's.

Thats my story from the cheap seats.

ROC
do the day or the day will do you

[Richard_smoker]

hey, you're right. that seems to be the way that buprenorphine has been viewed by the average opiate-addict in the US and I believe that the best use of that drug is also by utilizing a rapid taper. I have a friend who is taking it and swear that I can see the effects it has taken on him in over 2 years. i've pleaded with him to let me talk him thru the kicking process as i've picked up a few really helpful pointers after mounting this elephant myself and the subsequent discussions here on the site. But in the end, you can lead a horse to water but in the end, he's got to realize that it's drinkable. He'll come around though...

My opinions represents no scientific opinion and no end-result of academic research on the drug, but it seems like the powerful blocking effect on the receptors combined with the 24/7 "partial" activation does NOT make for a very happy person once their body adjusts to the drug and becomes addicted to it. it seems that after a while there's just a kind of gray, hollow, emotionless void that stretches out into forever--until the user manages to snap out of it.

For me, it took me reading through some random posts in the US buprenorphine-registry forum. It didn't take long to realize that there were SEVERAL people out there who were posting similar experiences of being drained, unfulfilled, and something else that I *NEVER* realized was actually caused by the bupe--It was an perpetual TIREDNESS that eventually seemed to just take over my entire life...like i couldn't go for 60 minutes without having to stop and take a quick nap.

Now that i've elimated the lifestyle, the tiredness and napping have gone completely away. -DICK