American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic
The king of the pill mills was American Pain, a mega-clinic that served as a prototype for the rest. From a pristine former bank building, doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran security, greeting the morning rush of pill poppers with cries of “Welcome to the dope hole!” Strippers and high-priced hookers operated the pharmacy, counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats, the doctors carried guns—and it was all legal ... at first.
Chris George, a 27-year-old entrepreneur and convicted felon, and his rowdy twin, Jeff, helped invent the modern pill mill. Sons of a South Florida home builder, they grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting, the twins hung out with mobsters, invested in strip clubs, brawled with cops, and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled and they needed another steady source of cash, a local doctor clued them into the burgeoning underground market for prescription painkillers, which were both legal and regulation-free. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, the brothers teamed up with the junkie doctor, and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, 90 percent of the pills flowing north to feed the rest of the country’s insatiable narcotics addition.
By 2009, so many Kentuckians were driving to Florida for prescriptions that police nicknamed I-75 Oxy Alley, and more than once they found OD’d passengers in traffickers’ vehicles. But American Pain was just the beginning of a nationwide epidemic. Florida has crushed its pill mills, but they’ve spread across the country.
This is where it started. It’s a gritty, Southern Gothic story of lax regulations, conflicts of interest, and good ol’ fashioned greed.
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Chris George, a 27-year-old entrepreneur and convicted felon, and his rowdy twin, Jeff, helped invent the modern pill mill. Sons of a South Florida home builder, they grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting, the twins hung out with mobsters, invested in strip clubs, brawled with cops, and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled and they needed another steady source of cash, a local doctor clued them into the burgeoning underground market for prescription painkillers, which were both legal and regulation-free. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, the brothers teamed up with the junkie doctor, and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, 90 percent of the pills flowing north to feed the rest of the country’s insatiable narcotics addition.
By 2009, so many Kentuckians were driving to Florida for prescriptions that police nicknamed I-75 Oxy Alley, and more than once they found OD’d passengers in traffickers’ vehicles. But American Pain was just the beginning of a nationwide epidemic. Florida has crushed its pill mills, but they’ve spread across the country.
This is where it started. It’s a gritty, Southern Gothic story of lax regulations, conflicts of interest, and good ol’ fashioned greed.
American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic
The king of the pill mills was American Pain, a mega-clinic that served as a prototype for the rest. From a pristine former bank building, doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran security, greeting the morning rush of pill poppers with cries of “Welcome to the dope hole!” Strippers and high-priced hookers operated the pharmacy, counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats, the doctors carried guns—and it was all legal ... at first.
Chris George, a 27-year-old entrepreneur and convicted felon, and his rowdy twin, Jeff, helped invent the modern pill mill. Sons of a South Florida home builder, they grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting, the twins hung out with mobsters, invested in strip clubs, brawled with cops, and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled and they needed another steady source of cash, a local doctor clued them into the burgeoning underground market for prescription painkillers, which were both legal and regulation-free. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, the brothers teamed up with the junkie doctor, and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, 90 percent of the pills flowing north to feed the rest of the country’s insatiable narcotics addition.
By 2009, so many Kentuckians were driving to Florida for prescriptions that police nicknamed I-75 Oxy Alley, and more than once they found OD’d passengers in traffickers’ vehicles. But American Pain was just the beginning of a nationwide epidemic. Florida has crushed its pill mills, but they’ve spread across the country.
This is where it started. It’s a gritty, Southern Gothic story of lax regulations, conflicts of interest, and good ol’ fashioned greed.
Chris George, a 27-year-old entrepreneur and convicted felon, and his rowdy twin, Jeff, helped invent the modern pill mill. Sons of a South Florida home builder, they grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting, the twins hung out with mobsters, invested in strip clubs, brawled with cops, and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled and they needed another steady source of cash, a local doctor clued them into the burgeoning underground market for prescription painkillers, which were both legal and regulation-free. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, the brothers teamed up with the junkie doctor, and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, 90 percent of the pills flowing north to feed the rest of the country’s insatiable narcotics addition.
By 2009, so many Kentuckians were driving to Florida for prescriptions that police nicknamed I-75 Oxy Alley, and more than once they found OD’d passengers in traffickers’ vehicles. But American Pain was just the beginning of a nationwide epidemic. Florida has crushed its pill mills, but they’ve spread across the country.
This is where it started. It’s a gritty, Southern Gothic story of lax regulations, conflicts of interest, and good ol’ fashioned greed.
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American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic
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American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781493007387 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 09/29/2015 |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d) |
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