Pill Head: The Secret Life of a Painkiller Addict (29 page)

BOOKS

Pain Killer: A “Wonder” Drug’s Trail of Addiction and Death
, Barry Meier, Rodale, 2003

Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2005: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits
, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Generation RX: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds and Bodies
, Greg Critser, Houghton Mifflin, 2005

Results From the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings,
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It
, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Public Affairs, 2007

The Science of Addiction
, National Institute of Health, 2007

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation
, Charles Barber, Pantheon Books, 2008

Sickness and in Power: Illness in Heads of Government During the Last 100 Years,
David Owen, Methuen, 2008

NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES

Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology:
“Buprenorphine Treatment of Refractory Depression,” J. Alexander Bodkin, M.D., Gwen L. Zornberg, M.D., Scott E. Lukas, Ph.D., and Jonathan O. Cole, M.D., Volume 15, No. 1, 1995

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry:
“Combining Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Bupronion in Partial Responders to Antidepressant Monotherapy,” J. Alexander Bodkin, M.D., Robert A. Lasser, M.D., James D. Wines, Jr., M.D., David M. Gardner, B.Sc. Pharm., and Ross J. Balessarini, M.D., April, 1997

The New York Times:
“Sales of Painkiller Grew Rapidly, But Success Brought a High Cost,” Barry Meier and Melody Petersen, March 5, 2001

Newsweek:
“Playing With Painkillers,” Claudia Kalb with Joan Raymond, Ellise Pierce, Sam Smith, Jay P. Wagner, Jeanne Gordon-Thomas, and Alan Wirzbicki, April 9, 2001

Associated Press: “Maker of OxyContin Faces at Least 13 Lawsuits Over Often-Abused Painkiller,” July 27, 2001

The New York Times:
“The Alchemy of OxyContin,” Paul Tough, July 29, 2001

The New York Times:
“At Painkiller Trouble Spot, Signs Seen as Alarming Didn’t Alarm Drug’s Maker,” Barry Meier, December 10, 2001

USA Today:
“Painkiller Thieves Get More Creative,” Donna Leinwand, December 1, 2003

The New York Times:
“Drug-Fighters Turn to Rising Tide of Prescription Abuse,” Michael Janofsky, March 18, 2004

WCPO News: “Father Gets Jail Time for Son’s OxyContin Death,” Liz Foreman, April 7, 2004

Time:
“Prescription For Crime; Illegal Pills Have Sparked a Wave of Thefts and Criminality that Rural Towns Just Can’t Handle,” Rex Bowman/Tazewell, March 28, 2005

USA Today:
“Ecstasy’s Lost ‘Its Panache’ Among Teens,” Donna Leinwand, April 22, 2005

Time:
“An Inside Look at a ‘Pharming Party,’ the Newest Venue for
Teenage Prescription-Drug Abuse,” Carolyn Banta, August 1, 2005

The New York Sun:
“Dr. Feelgood, Past and Present,” September 20, 2005

The New York Times:
“Drug Survey of Students Finds Picture Very Mixed,” Kate Zernike, December 20, 2005

The New York Times:
“When Teenagers Abuse Prescription Drugs, the Fault May Be the Doctor’s,” Howard Markel, M.D., December 27, 2005

USA Today:
“Prescription Drugs Find Place in Teen Culture,” Donna Leinwand, June 13, 2006

The New York Times:
“Illegal Drug Use by Teenagers Is on Decline, U.S. Study Finds,” Micah Cohen, December 22, 2006

USA Today:
“Teen Drug Use Drops, with Exceptions; Survey Finds Abuse of Pharmaceuticals Relatively Steady,” Donna Leinwand, December 22, 2006

Vogue:
“Trouble in Mind,” Eva Marar, December 2006

USA Today:
“Deadly Abuse of Methadone Tops Other Prescription Drugs; Only Cocaine Kills More by Overdose,” Donna Lein-wand, February 13, 2007

USA Today:
“Painkiller More Available for Abuse,” Donna Lein-wand, February 13, 2007

Albany Times-Union:
“A Disgraced but Popular Doctor,” Brendan J. Lyons, February 28, 2007

Associated Press: “Prescription Drug Abuse Soaring,” March 1, 2007

Associated Press: “Binge Drinking, Pill Abuse Intensify at Colleges,” March 15, 2007

Newsweek:
“The Changing Science of Pain,” Mary Carmichael, with Samantha Henig, Dan Ephron, and Julie Scelfo, June 4, 2007

New York Post:
“‘Oxy’ Kids Crisis,” Larry Celona and Leonard Greene, June 18, 2007

Elle:
“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” Lauren Slater, July 2007
The New York Times:
“Japanese Slowly Shedding Their Misgivings about the Use of Painkilling Drugs,” Donald G. McNeil, September 10, 2007

The New York Times:
“Drugs Banned, Many of World’s Poor Suffer in Pain,” Donald G. McNeil Jr., September 10, 2007

The New York Times:
“In India, a Quest to Ease the Pain of the Dying,” Donald G. McNeil Jr., September 11, 2007

The New York Times:
“Experts Debate the Meaning of Addiction,” Donald McNeil, September 14, 2007

Los Angeles Times:
“Drug Use Down, but Teens Still Abusing Painkillers,” Theo Milonopoulos, December 12, 2007

Vogue:
“The Quick Fix,” Judith Newman, March 2008
Newsweek:
“The Hunt for an Addiction Vaccine,” Jeneen Interlandi, March 3, 2008

The New York Times:
“Methadone Rises as a Painkiller with Big Risks,” Erik Eckholm and Olga Pierce, August 17, 2008

US News & World Report:
“Teen Brain Might Get Hooked Easier on OxyContin,” Amanda Gardner, September 10, 2008

WEBSITES & MISCELLANEOUS

Court of Common Pleas, Clermont County, Ohio—James Dean Hearing Transcripts from March 15th, 2004, March 29th, 2004,

April 7th, 2004, and April 15th, 2004

New Jersey State Police News Release: “State Police Division of Criminal Justice Arrest Alleged Members of Multi-Million Dollar Prescription Drug Ring,” January 26, 2007

Health on the Net: “Dealers, Family Biggest Sources of Illegal Prescription Painkillers,” Alan Mozes, February 9, 2007 CNN.com: “Deadly $2 Heroin Targets Teens,” Tracy Sabo, June 12, 2007

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, www.phc4.org/reports/FYI/fyi26.htm

www.painreliefnetwork.org

PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF
I forget anyone here, since extended opiate use causes memory loss. And yes, I know that excuse has already gotten old.

Thank you to Brenda Copeland, my editor at Hyperion, for guiding me through this weird journey with a wicked sense of humor, an enormous heart, and no judgments. I knew we were destined to work together the second we met. To my friend and agent, Erin Hosier, from Dunow, Carlson & Lerner, thank you for believing in me for so long. You possess a mind and wit I would kill for. Stephanie Trong, I don’t care if you’re married at the time, I’m still living with you in a Florida condo when I’m an old man. Thank you for showing me that this world is inhabitable.

A massive thank you to everyone at Hyperion for your belief in this book, especially Ellen Archer, Will Balliett, Jessica Weiner, Betsy Plowman, Allison McGeehon, Pamela Peterson, Navorn Johnson, Kevin MacDonald, and Kate Griffin for dealing with all my anxiety-ridden emails.

This book wouldn’t have been possible without enormous help from the following people: Melissa Kinsey, Loren Lankford, Chris
Steffen, and Tammy Tibbetts. I am forever indebted to all of you for your hard work and dedication.

Thank you to the following friends who have always had my back, no matter how bad things got: Melissa Plaut, Johnny Rauberts, Philippe Kane, and Erin Flaherty.

Thank you Timmy, Drew, and Jonah for your feedback on early versions of this manuscript. I will always love each of you.

Leslie Russo and Louise Yelin, thank you for being friends and mentors early in my career and making me believe I could accomplish anything I wanted to professionally.

Thank you Dr. Brian Meehan and Dr. Anthony Termine, for keeping me healthy and sane.

There are too many people to name individually who helped me get interviews with people who are normally hard to reach, but I want to extend a giant thank you to all of the hard-working assistants and media relations employees I worked with. And of course a huge thank you to all the brilliant experts from so many diverse fields who agreed to partake in this book, especially Dr. Carol Boyd, Dr. Alexander Bodkin, Alexander DeLuca, Mark Caverly, and all of the doctors, therapists, and volunteers at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center. Thank you also to Marion Ettlinger.

To my entire family, I hope I haven’t made future reunions too awkward. I guess we have a lot to talk about now. I love you all. Special thanks to Mom and Peter for what I see as a whole new relationship. Dad, let’s talk when you finish this. To my sisters, Erica and Nyssa—let’s please all work harder to get together more often. Christopher, Francesca, Josie, Katie, and Ricky, I love you all and hope I haven’t disappointed any of you. Bobby, thank you for the gifts of strength and language.

And to Emily, all I can say is onward.