Addict Nation by Sandra Mohr Jane Velez-Mitchell Page A
Authors: Sandra Mohr Jane Velez-Mitchell
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their patient is shopping around for as many drugs as he or she can get. The fact is, if someone is strung out on pills, it eventually becomes rather obvious. Their eyes are glassy, and they’re often twitchy and scattered. Many doctors prefer not to notice and collect their fees rather than risk an uncomfortable confrontation with a patient demanding drugs, who will always ferociously insist it’s to relieve exquisite pain. Drug addicts, in their desperation to score, can be very persuasive.
Eighties’ TV and movie star Corey Haim may well become the poster child for doctor shopping. In March 2010, the Lost Boys actor collapsed and died in his mother’s Los Angeles apartment, at the age of thirty-eight. While he had very bad chest congestion, many in Hollywood immediately suspected an overdose. For decades, Corey had been an incorrigible drug addict. He once described himself on Larry King Live as a “chronic relapser.” The prescription-pill habit got so bad that he became almost destitute.
Corey’s agent insisted that, when he took Corey on as a client about a year and a half before his death, he did it on the condition that Corey get clean. His agent insisted to me “live” on Issues that Corey had cleaned up his act. The agent was convinced Corey didn’t die of a drug overdose, although he added Corey might have had a bad reaction to medications his addiction specialist was giving him. Wait! A doctor was giving Corey Haim drugs in order to get him off drugs? That makes no sense to me. Some drug addicts, when they first get sober, are so riddled with drugs they need to be gradually weaned off so they don’t go into convulsions or worse. But that process should never take a year and a half. If the agent had insisted a year and a half earlier that Corey get clean, then Corey should not have been taking any drugs, period!
Sobriety means the absence of all mood-altering drugs with the rare exception of an absolute medical necessity, and then for only as long as absolutely medically necessary. Sobriety does not mean giving the addict less-potent drugs. That’s called “managing” your addiction, and it’s almost always guaranteed to fail because an addict is precisely someone who cannot practice moderation. Most people seem to understand this concept when it comes to alcohol, but sometimes get confused when it comes to prescription pills because they’re “medicine.” Just as a drunk cannot have a sip of alcohol without triggering a craving that can result in a major binge, so a pill head cannot take any mood-altering pills because even half a pill can provoke a powerful craving for a lot more of the same. Even half a pill puts addicts into their disease , physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Still, addicts often manage to use the “I’m weaning myself off ” excuse to score more drugs.
“It’s not a Hollywood issue. It’s a country-wide issue that only gets talked about when the rich and famous die.”
—Howard Samuels, Psy.D., licensed clinical psychologist,
founder, and CEO of the Hills Treatment Center in Los Angeles
The controversy over Corey’s death dominated the headlines. As we all waited for the inevitably slow toxicology report to come back, more and more reports surfaced that Corey was still up to his old tricks. California’s then–attorney general Jerry Brown announced that Corey Haim’s name had popped up on a fraudulently obtained prescription for the powerful drug OxyContin, which is sometimes referred to as “Hillbilly Heroin.” 7 The phony prescription scheme was linked to a massive illegal prescription drug ring operating out of Southern California. Brown said this ring would steal legitimate doctors’ identities and use that information to print up phony prescription pads. Prescription pads are like cash; they’re a currency unto themselves. The counterfeit prescriptions were then sold to drug abusers and street pushers, who would go to drugstore after
Eighties’ TV and movie star Corey Haim may well become the poster child for doctor shopping. In March 2010, the Lost Boys actor collapsed and died in his mother’s Los Angeles apartment, at the age of thirty-eight. While he had very bad chest congestion, many in Hollywood immediately suspected an overdose. For decades, Corey had been an incorrigible drug addict. He once described himself on Larry King Live as a “chronic relapser.” The prescription-pill habit got so bad that he became almost destitute.
Corey’s agent insisted that, when he took Corey on as a client about a year and a half before his death, he did it on the condition that Corey get clean. His agent insisted to me “live” on Issues that Corey had cleaned up his act. The agent was convinced Corey didn’t die of a drug overdose, although he added Corey might have had a bad reaction to medications his addiction specialist was giving him. Wait! A doctor was giving Corey Haim drugs in order to get him off drugs? That makes no sense to me. Some drug addicts, when they first get sober, are so riddled with drugs they need to be gradually weaned off so they don’t go into convulsions or worse. But that process should never take a year and a half. If the agent had insisted a year and a half earlier that Corey get clean, then Corey should not have been taking any drugs, period!
Sobriety means the absence of all mood-altering drugs with the rare exception of an absolute medical necessity, and then for only as long as absolutely medically necessary. Sobriety does not mean giving the addict less-potent drugs. That’s called “managing” your addiction, and it’s almost always guaranteed to fail because an addict is precisely someone who cannot practice moderation. Most people seem to understand this concept when it comes to alcohol, but sometimes get confused when it comes to prescription pills because they’re “medicine.” Just as a drunk cannot have a sip of alcohol without triggering a craving that can result in a major binge, so a pill head cannot take any mood-altering pills because even half a pill can provoke a powerful craving for a lot more of the same. Even half a pill puts addicts into their disease , physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Still, addicts often manage to use the “I’m weaning myself off ” excuse to score more drugs.
“It’s not a Hollywood issue. It’s a country-wide issue that only gets talked about when the rich and famous die.”
—Howard Samuels, Psy.D., licensed clinical psychologist,
founder, and CEO of the Hills Treatment Center in Los Angeles
The controversy over Corey’s death dominated the headlines. As we all waited for the inevitably slow toxicology report to come back, more and more reports surfaced that Corey was still up to his old tricks. California’s then–attorney general Jerry Brown announced that Corey Haim’s name had popped up on a fraudulently obtained prescription for the powerful drug OxyContin, which is sometimes referred to as “Hillbilly Heroin.” 7 The phony prescription scheme was linked to a massive illegal prescription drug ring operating out of Southern California. Brown said this ring would steal legitimate doctors’ identities and use that information to print up phony prescription pads. Prescription pads are like cash; they’re a currency unto themselves. The counterfeit prescriptions were then sold to drug abusers and street pushers, who would go to drugstore after
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