WCBS 880 Special Series: Bad Medicine - Part 9 - Recovering Painkiller Addict Blames Doctors For Epidemic
WCBS 880 reporter Irene Cornell is doing an extended series on drug abuse, called Bad Medicine: When Painkillers Kill. The series will run through May 25. Be sure to check cbsnewyork.com for her pieces if you miss them on-air.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Michael Green is a grandfather 13 times over, in his 50s, and he can now proudly call himself a recovering addict, a survivor of Oxycontin.
WCBS 880's Irene Cornell On The Story
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He just completed a program at Daytop Village that freed him from his craving for prescription pills, reported WCBS 880's Irene Cornell.
"I was referred to this program and this is the first time in my life that I accomplished anything, 50-some-years-old, and when I came here, I just seem to get myself together. I don't know, it's just that I choose to go down the right road," Green told Cornell.
So what happens now, when he has a problem with pain? He's sent to a pain management clinic.
"I was having problems with my knees. So he says to me 'We got something for you for that, Percocets.' I said 'I'm not accepting no Percocets. I don't want that.' He says 'Most of you guys that come in here, you love that stuff.' Well, this guy here he does not love it," Green said.
Green said he was shocked by what that doctor said.
"I know numbers of doctors right now that you know, if you got a Medicaid card, you walk in their office, they're going to give you what you want," Green said.
Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycontin - when you walk in there, said Green, they assume you're an addict.
He said the drugs are too easy to get.
Green said what he has found out is that doctor does not always know best. He blames doctors for creating an epidemic of addiction to painkillers.
"These prescription drugs is more worse than any. It's an epidemic right now, with these prescription drugs," said Green. "It's worser on the streets than anything else, any other drug alive. I've never seen it this bad."
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