(mariana) do you think that the doctor that prescribes you the pills knows you're addicted? >>yes, for sure. >>then why does he still prescribe you pills? >>cause he wants money. that's it. [indistinct police radio call]. (man) i'm gonna start feeling sick soon if i don't have my medication. (mariana) when a lot of us think

of prescription drug abuse, we think anna nicole smith, heath ledger, michael jackson. but the story of the celebrity overdose overshadows a much larger issue. in the united states, more people are now abusing prescription medication than heroin, cocaine and ecstasy combined. the drug of choice for a growing number of users is oxycodone, a synthetic opioid best known by the brand name oxycontin. it's basically heroin made in a lab. >>given the choice between heroin and oxycontin, hands down they're taking the oxycontin. oxycontin is the same as heroin, except it's made by a pharmaceutical company, so you know what you're getting. (mariana) oxy was developed to treat people in severe, chronic pain like terminally ill cancer patients but it's now become a part in a booming illicit trade in prescription pills, the heart of which is right here in south florida. >>everyone tells me: you come to broward, you're gonna get your pickles. (mariana) but the source of

these pills isn't some guy on the corner or a columbian drug lord, it's a growing cottage industry of storefront pain clinics, doctor's offices that liberally dispense the drugs. >>they're not doctors; they are drug dealers with degrees. (mariana) doctors in florida prescribe oxycontin at five times the national average. the effect of this flood of pills is alarming and is being felt well beyond the sunshine state's borders. one after the other, just oxycontin, oxycontin, oxycontin. >>my wife passed away right there. >>they're shooting them. they're snorting them. they're selling them. and they're dying. >>this is my son drew; he was 25. (mariana) maureen barrett's son, drew, died of an overdose from prescription pills. >>this is what he was able to get in less than 57 days. these are candies, but i've gone all over the state with these

just to show what the pill clinics can do. (mariana) the candies represent the nearly 1,500 pills that drew was prescribed in less than two months by a single doctor at a pain clinic in florida. >>he ended up get 300 xanex, and this is your highest dosage. methadone, 80 miligrams. somas and dilaudid. dilaudid is what they give you before you have surgery, pretty powerful stuff, and the mixture is just deadly. i had major surgery, and i came out with 30 vicotin. this is what i came out with and i had major, major surgery. my son could go in with no illness and come out with that. it was incredible, i mean just the sheer quantity. (mariana) drew's supplier was a doctor in miami, who was implicated in several other overdose deaths. >>he was basically operating as a legalized drug dealer. there was no x-rays, no mris, no physical therapy, just writing prescriptions for money. (mariana) as the popularity of

prescription drugs has surged, the number of deaths caused by pills has also risen dramatically. in florida, pills are involved in 75 percent of all the drug related deaths, and, on average, 11 people a day die from prescription overdoses. >>think if 11 people a day are dying, i'd call that an epidemic. >>if manatees were washing up on our shores everyday, the world would be outraged, and researchers and scientists from around the country would be coming to solve the problem, and we are not putting that much focus on people. that's just a shame. >>he was supposed to start a rehab program the following tuesday, but on saturday a friend took him to this doctor's office. he got another 450 pills, took the pills, and he was dead on sunday. we found him on monday. and, you just never get over it. it's with you 24/7. you're not supposed to bury your

children. >>who found him, and how did you find him? >>his father and todd went over, and they found him. (mariana) todd is maureen's son and drew's younger brother. >>you'd think that it would make me want to stop, but it made me want to get even more high, so i wouldn't have to deal with the pain of losing a brother. (mariana) todd is also addicted to oxycontin. >>at your worst time, how much were you taking. >>i was doing 30 30mg oxycontin pills a day and ten xanex bars. >>how did you get that much? >>i would go to doctors. i would doctor shop it. i was going to five different doctors, and then i would sell just enough medication to get to the next doctors appointment. >>so, at the end of the month after going to five doctors, how many pills did you get in one month? >>over a couple thousand. yeah, cause my wife was going as

well. (mariana) todd introduced his wife stephanie to pills, and she eventually became addicted to oxy too. >>this picture, i was really bad then. that was when i was doing 30 pills a day. my wife was high in this picture. i was high too. >>what about on your wedding day? >>wasted. >>both of you or just you? >>she did some too. my wife passed away right there, november 22. 12:59 is when i woke up. she was laying like this, just like this. i pulled her hair back, and her head was completely blue. i called 911; it was just too late. >>what happened? >>well we took a nap, and before we went to bed, we both did two pills, and she just never woke up. >>so she died six months ago? >>right. that was her side. after she died, i always slept here. you know, i miss her.

i want to be where she was, so i sleep on that side now. i did drugs when the ambulance was on the way. i snorted some pills, some oxycontin. it sounds really selfish and stupid, and it is really selfish and stupid. but that's like the first thing whenever something bad happens whatever i can get my hands on to use to numb the pain. (mariana) todd and stephanie had a daughter together. they named her drew after todd's brother. >>what does a pig say. [snorts]. >>what does a pig say again? [snorts]. (mariana) years of addiction have left todd unemployed and unable to support himself, let alone his daughter. so todd's parents have custody

of drew. maureen is helping to support todd. she takes care of his apartment, gives him $5 a day allowance and is trying to help him get back on his feet. >>that was one of the plants that i was given at drew's funeral. i still have it alive. hopefully, they know we're looking at them. >>yup. >>and hopefully they're looking down on us. >>they are. >>and little drew. (mariana) she's not aware that todd is using oxy again. >>we're gonna show you guys how to get some oxycontin in the state of florida.

[[vo]]...and we don't stick to party lines. >>people who buy politicians gotta cover their bets. [[vo]]we are the investigators fiercely independent, and we don't hold back. >>we are the 99% and

we are too big to fail. [[vo]]...and we don't do talking points. >>i think the hypocrisy is so blatant. [[vo]]and above all... and there's only one place you'll find us. weeknights on current tv. ten pages with ads, one after the other, for pain clinics, most of which have coupons. you know, "$35 off initial visit." "buy one get one free." this one actually says "complete pain care, opiate medications." you know you have a real business when the last ten pages of the local newspaper are dedicated to selling painkillers.

the number of pain management clinics in south florida almost tripled in 2008. there are now as many as 100 clinics in broward county alone. >>the proliferation of pain clinics, particularly in broward county, is shameful. of the top 50 dispensing physicians of oxycontin in the entire country, all 50 are in florida, and 33 of them are in broward county. >>there are areas of broward county that you can't go three or four blocks without seeing pain management clinic, pain management clinic. >>why florida? >>this biggest reason is because we don't have prescription drug monitoring. we don't have a database that tracks these drugs. (mariana) florida is the largest state in the country without a prescription drug monitoring plan. without a database to track who's getting what pills and how much, addicts can go to multiple doctors and multiple prescriptions in a practice known as doctor shopping. the growing number of pain

clinics in florida had made it a doctor shoppers paradise. if you're an addict like todd, it can start to feel like there's temptation on every corner. >>we're gonna show you guys how to get some oxycontin in the state of florida. this is what i do for a living. i'd go to five doctors in a month. my wife would go to four. my wife died from this. i still unfortunately dabble in it. hi, my name is todd, i have an mri and pharmacy printout. would it be feasible for me to get in today? hi, is this pain management? hi, my name is todd. do you think it's possible i could be seen today? (mariana) despite the fast growing number of clinics in florida, the demand for painkillers is so high here that it can be difficult to get an appointment on such short notice. and, people often have to wait hours before they get in to see a doctor. >>a good one will have patients filled for the whole week. they're not going to say, "come in today." cause that means that nobody is going to that place, unless nobody knows about that clinic.

it's a way of life down here these doctors, for a lot of people. i look for "dispensing on site." that means they're more crooked. i'll call this one. (mariana) many states don't allow doctor's offices to both prescribe and dispense medication, except in small amounts, because it creates a financial incentive to push pills. but in florida, onsite pharmacies are legal and often preferred by addicts. >>if you read my mri, it says "mild bulging of what is labeled the l5 disc." it says "unremarkable." so, they just want a piece of paper that has a little something on it, so they feel comfortable with giving you the medication. hi, my name is todd. i was wondering are you accepting walk-ins today? before one o'clock. ok, thank you, and what's your name? thanks, shauna; i'll see you

soon. all right, let's do this. you have to understand anything can go. they could see track marks on my arms and say, "get the [bleep] out of here." they could call my doctors and find out i'm doctor shopping. they could write me a very small amount of pills. they could possibly not write me anything. now, usually that doesn't happen. i'm just saying that that is a possibility. (mariana) we were filming a pain clinic from across the street, and this huge, black suv comes up with a guy all tattooed huge guy, and he's following us right behind us.

>>this is outrageous! [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the rest of the media seems like, "ho-hum, no big deal." we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real. (mariana) todd returns from the pain clinic empty handed. he'd been denied over a problem with his paperwork. unable to get an appointment anywhere else, he moves to plan b.

>>hold the cameras down. >>todd was saying that he was jonesing real bad. he just went into a friend's house. he says that she sells oxys. he's actually just coming out now. i think he got some. >>yeah. i got three 30mg oxycontin. >>this person you went to go buy the drugs from, she usually has them. >>not really, no. >>why? >>cause i can't go there if her grandson is there, and 90 percent of the time, he's there. >>so it's an old woman? >>yeah, it's an old ... she's about 70 years old. >>seventy years old? and she's dealing oxys? >>yes.

you have to hold it in for a long, long time. >>how do you feel now? >>i feel normal. i don't feel high; i just feel normal. i feel like i did if i didn't use drugs. see if you do drugs, you go up and you go down. after a while, you start to go below the normal level. so, when you get high, you're just getting normal again. you're not getting high anymore. see what i'm saying? it's like a mountain. >>that's when you're addicted already. >>yeah, that's when you know you're [bleep]. i've been in detox about 15 times and rehab about six. i get out. i stay clean for a while, and then i tell myself i can do it

once. then, friday night turns into tuesday, and tuesday turns into thrusday, and before you know it, i'm doing it everyday again. (mariana) how common is prescription drug abuse here in florida? >>it's really big, really big in florida. it's bad. i know today wasn't easy, but if you put in a couple days, you can definitely get medication. they just hand it out like it's nothing. i go to the emergency room cause i broke my rib when i was drinking, and i told them what i was on, and they were like, "i wouldn't give that to you if your arm was amputated." but people want them; it's supply and demand. people want them, and there's going to be a doctor writing for them. (mariana) in florida, some pain clinics are known to dispense

pain medication more easily than others. so, we came here to check out this pain clinic because a lot of law enforcement and doctors told us that a lot of the prescriptions are actually coming from this one pain clinic. and, they've actually just closed this office, and there's a guy out front sitting in a car handing out maps for the new location, and they have a new office that opened a few miles up the road, so we're gonna check it out. wow, look at that. the parking lot is completely full. there's even a security guard out front. we stopped the car to film the clinic, but only got off with this one quick shot before we were chased away by two big men. so we were filming a pain clinic from across the street, and literally we had the camera out for five minutes, and this huge, black suv comes up with a guy

all tattooed huge guy. he starts asking us, "what the [bleep] are you doing? what are you filming?" and we drove off, and he's following us, right behind us. the men continue to follow us for several miles, and they were eventually joined by another car, so we decided to call the police. they approached us. we were on the other side of the street, and now they're actually following us. we were followed by those guys for about 25 minutes, and every time we tried to pull into a gas station, they'd come out of the car. so we called the police, and this is the scene, all because we wanted to film a pain clinic. >>the "clinics" are engaged in the worst type of medical practice. some of them are engaged in flagrant criminal activity. you see cars lined up, security

guards making sure people aren't loitering, hanging around the clinic causing trouble. this is medicine? this is ridiculous. (mariana) the police let the men go with a warning. we later found out that one of the cars was registered to the pain clinic we were trying to film, and the other to the owner. a man who, according to miami herald investigation, has already spent time in prison for possession of steroids with intent to sell. >>many of these clinics, in broward county particularly, are fronts. they are clinics that have been established by non-physician owners, and they bring a physician out of retirement, who has a da number, to work there to write as many prescriptions as possible for cash. (mariana) this footage was taken inside one clinic on a cell phone camera. there are three lines here: one for new patients, one for returning patients, and one to pick up prescriptions.

the growing crowds, along with the large number and combination of pills being prescribed, have led many to believe that some clinics have been set up just to cater to pill addicts. >>it's just legal drug pushing. it's unbelievable. you're watching people go in there that are drug addicts. they're drug addicts. a person is getting 180, 240 oxycontin, percocet, xanex. i mean, who possibly is in that much pain? (mariana) we wanted to get a look inside a pain clinic for ourselves. this time we decided to take a smaller camera. so this is a little undercover camera pen; there's a camera in here. we're gonna go into one of these pain clinics and just see what we can film. this is where were gonna put the little camera. how does it look? >>good.

(mariana) there are about a dozen people inside the clinic mostly young. like most pain clinics in broward, they don't accept insurance. it's cash only. they only offer one course of treatment, drugs. >>it's a racket. you have to pay cash to be seen. you have to pay cash for your prescriptions. you have to pay cash for them to do an mri for you. once you know what the game is

it's on. (mariana) word of florida's pain clinics has spread well beyond the state's borders. people from far away places now make regular pilgrimages to the sunshine state just to get their pills.

>>kentucky, tennessee, ohio, our surrounding state's residents are coming in to florida because prescription medication is so readily and easily available. >>we've become a distribution center for oxycontin for the rest of the country, unfortunately. (officer) i need you to tell me where your ocs are. i don't want to tear house up, so you need to tell me where they are. (woman) you can look. i'm not happy about it. this is countdown south

carolina. forgot the name of the show p.m. their destiniation, nyc, to show how the samsung galaxy note is revolutionizing the way we live. >>what's going on friends, we're here to see our friends at glow interactive. what are you doing? >>well i'm really enjoying the galaxy note, because games are so immersive since the resolution is great. >>that is impressive. now we recently spent the day with the guys from glow, who are video game designers and we talked about street art and inspiration for video games, and today, we're actually going into their studio to see the creative process come together.

>>welcome to glow so we have a whole day planned out in my s planner. my whole year and month planned out. today i've got my todo list, going to move my lunch down a bit. so yeah, let's do it. >>this is a tower defense game these friendly guys are defending their crops against invading robots. >>how does a device as powerful as the galaxy note free you from the desk so that you can create on the road? >>in terms of the creation process, it means that we could wander the streets of brooklyn and find a piece of street art or anything we find inspiring, snap, and pass the information on to an illustrator. having a small device with that much power means accomplishing a lot. >>i see you guys are designing a menu how might you use the galaxy note in this process? >>i'm sketching these two icons. you know, drawing is really easy on the note. and this helps to see the characters easily before we animate. >>i thought that was a portrait of me that you were drawing. >>you can take notes on the sketches and send them to somebody not in

the meeting. >>exactly. >>so we're looking at the evolution here what about the guy that you're translating to the digital space? >>this guy here is what we were colorizing >>he looks great! >>select your pen and brush size for finer detail >>he's like a crab from key west. >>i want to show you guys the latest build of oh crop, live on the galaxy note. you can see that world that we saw start as sketches, with something as powerful as the galaxy note we can make more complicated models, put more characters on screen things like that. >>looks amazing, thanks guys this has been such a treat! >>so great meeting you and seeing your creative process. look what they made for us. >>that really doesn't look like you. what an amazing day we learned so much about video games, creativity with the galaxy note, thanks for watching! cheers.

the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.

florida has become the pain killer capital of the u.s. of all the oxycodone dispensed by doctors in the whole country, 85 percent of it comes from florida. with the abundance in pills, the state is seeing new types of tourism. people who travel from all over the u.s. just to visit a doctor. and they're returning home with hundreds if not thousands of potent pills. but unlike trafficking illicit drugs, transporting pills can be as easy as buying a plane ticket on what's known as the oxycontin express. so we're taking a low cost flight from fort lauderdale to huntington, west virginia. this flight has been called the oxy express because it's the flight that people from the tri-state area, kentucky, ohio

and west virginia take to come here down to florida to buy prescription drugs and take them back to their home states. to get a sense of how far florida's pill pipeline stretches, we're heading to the heart of appalachia to greenup kentucky, population 1200. ♪ this is greenup county, so1, sheriff keith cooper, i'm making a phone call to a female known only to me as brandi at this time. (mariana) keith cooper is the sheriff of greenup county, he's trying to make contact with a local woman who he's learned is looking to make a trip down to florida to buy some pills. (phone) you have reached the sprint pcs voice mailbox of ... (mariana) he sometimes goes by duncan when he's working undercover. >>brandi, hey, this is duncan. i'm a friend of jimmy's. he said something about you

needing somebody to a ride in florida. i'm fixing up to head on up the hell out of here a little later, it's about 20 after two now baby. i'm needing you to get back with me real soon. (mariana) in greenup, the biggest worries used to be moonshine and marijuana, but these days it's all pills. >>these are all, those are 80s there, $80 a piece. >>so all of these here are from florida. >>yeah, these are fort lauderdale? about four years ago from my guys and me arresting people and start noticing, from florida? and more often it started happening more and more and more and more and more. and finally it got to the point where, hell, they're all from florida. that's when i started making phone calls to the dea pharmacy boards, medical boards. i got you. and basically what they told me was in a nice way was, was "look, you're a hick sheriff from the hills of kentucky don't be trying to tell us how to do our job."

♪ >>throughout the state of kentucky, there's no family that has not been impacted one way or another by this. if we someone in the obituary columns of the newspaper and they're in their 30s and 40s most likely it's because of a drug overdose. but we don't know. >>and why is that? because it's so pervasive, we don't have enough money to test everyone that comes in. (mariana) kentucky now leads the nation in prescription drug abuse. oxycodone first got a foothold here about a decade ago. and the rampant abuse of oxy in appalachia even earned the nickname hillbilly heroin. but as state officials began to crack down on local doctors, they noticed that a growing number of pills was coming from a thousand miles away. >>we see patients coming in overdosed all the time addicted to pain pills and most of them are from florida.

i'm here in a little er in eastern kentucky and can name 15 doctors in florida i've never even met. >>people that want to make money down in florida realized that they could make money because there was no narcotic tracking system. it was basically, come here, give us cash, we give you a prescription. well, pablo escobar couldn't have had it any better. (mariana) aside from the high demand for oxy in the region there's also a lot of money to be made in selling pills that are bought in florida. in appalachia, a single 30 milligram pill of oxycodone sells for $30. that's three times the street price in florida. and 10 times the price paid at a paying clinic. in other words, the bottle of pills you paid $500 for in broward county, you could sell for $5,000 in greenup county. >>it's created entrepreneurs out here that literally send dozens a month, dozens a month down there. (mariana) you say dozens of

people out there just to buy pills? >>just to go to florida to buy pills, and do a turn about come right back. if i front you the money and you go for me, i give you half of the pills. and you get me the other half of the pills. >>so i'll be able to feed my addiction without having to pay anything up front? >>exactly. you get your addiction fed, i make money. everybody's happy. everybody except the old worn out sheriff of the county's not happy. (mariana) with florida several hundred miles outside his jurisdiction, sheriff cooper focuses on the only part of the pill trade that he can. >>wanda ten. >>today the sheriff is going to serve a warrant on a man that he's learned is selling oxy he bought in florida. come on man, be there. be there, be there, be there. there he is. >>is that him?

that's him. let's find out what's up. >>what kind of medication? >>just make you aware right now, you have the right to remain silent. anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. we have a search warrant for your residence. and we're going to search it. (mariana) the man that the sheriff is arresting is named terry. he's 53 years old, unemployed and addicted to oxycodone. >>i need you to tell me where your ocs are. i don't want to tear your house up so you need to tell me where they are. (mariana) he lives with his wife and daughter. his daughter is also addicted to oxy. >>have you tried quitting? >>yeah, it's just not that easy. especially when it's in your face all the time. wherever you go in kentucky, somebody is doing peels. >>ok, we got ... >>what is that? >>i'd say this is oxycodone and zanex if i were guessing and as you can see they're all from florida.

♪ (mariana) for selling the pills he got in florida, terry is facing a two year sentence. (mariana) in greenup, the prison is filled with people like terry. so what are most of the women in here for? >>oxycontin, zanex, that's mainly your big thing really. >>can we say hi to them? >>hi ... how many of us are in here? fourteen of us. >>and you guys are in here why? >>for prescriptions and for selling them. that's what i'm in here for. >>prescription pills? >>yeah. >>all of you? >>yeah, trafficking, prescriptions. >>the majority of the women in here are ... >>yeah, possession yeah. they call us pillbillies. >>[laughing] >>why did you guys start taking pills? >>not sure, it's just the way the cookie crumbles i guess. >>it's easy to get a hold of because it's what a lot of

people are doing so most of the people you're running around with are either already doing or they're going to introduce you to it so it's easy to get addicted and once you get a hold of the money too, that's it. >>it's just as addictive as ... >>the money is ... (mariana) the greenup county jail normally holds up to about 80 prisoners, but these days it's almost double that. what percentage of people are in there because of pills? >>one way or another, 90. but something regarding pills, burglary to get pills, theft to get pills, spousal abuse because they're on pills, dui because of pills, just about all of them in one way or another have to do with the pills. just about all of them. how many of you have been to florida to buy your pills? >>i have. all of us. all of us. >>you all have? >>there were four people in one car and four people in another car. and the seven of them went and they hit three doctors, and they're all getting 180, 190

pills. >>that was the great thing about my ex-boyfriend was that sounds bad, but he had one leg and he'd get max. so he was getting the absolute max. >>what's the most difficult part about being here now. >>being away from my kids. could you just knowingly go and leaving your children for seven years? >>i still haven't seen my 3-year-old. because i just can't imagine being through that glass and her not being able to touch me. it's hard. >>don't, don't even start. 'cause i know it was a week ago, callie came to saw me and even one of the guards charlie out there said it was hard for me not to cry because callie had to hold that phone and she was pounding that glass, she was screaming mommy, mommy. (mariana) donna had been

sentenced to seven years for trafficking pills. >>pepe. (mariana) her two daughters are living with her mother. >>literally every family in this county has been affected in one way or another. >>i'm just so angry at myself and at her for getting to this point where she has to spend seven years in jail away from her children and every day they have to ask about her and want to see her. and the 2-year-old can't, one day she's good, the next day she's "i want my mom, i want her now." and she'll scream and cry for her. >>are you frustrated because so much of the problem has come from florida? >>i'm incensed. i'm beyond frustrated, i'm incensed because all of the profit is down there. all of the pain is up here.

>>hey, don't move, don't move. hands up. >>i didn't hear from todd last night and i didn't hear from him this morning. that's not a good sign. [[vo]]...we're the idea nobody wants to hear. ...until the truth reveals itself. boat-rockers. and above all... and there's only one place you'll find us. weeknights on current tv.

(mariana)in florida, the

challenge of stemming the flow of pills has mostly fell into local law enforcement. over the last few months, the special investigations unit of office has made the prescription drug trade a primary focus. >>if the main ingredient in each pill is oxycontin, then you can weight them all together. >>we're used to doing jump outs, crack dealers, and guys standing on the corner. but now you get all the legal prescriptions per se. (mariana) detective brann redl is getting prepared to go undercover on the unit's latest sting operation. my props. sometimes we have to drive a little crazy, just hang on. we'll be all right. >>the pharmacy we're going to right now doesn't have a computerized system, we don't keep computerized records of who they dispense to and all that. a lot of these guys that doctor-shop and get all these legal pills go there to fill

these prescriptions because there's no record keeping of what they're doing. the other car's over there and he's possibly making contact with somebody right now. (mariana) the unit is targeting what is known as diversion. people selling pills out of their own prescriptions. >>he's got to start a conversation with them and they have to get to the point where they're offering the pills to him. see the guy just started talking to him. (man on radio) ten for $120. following him on foot, going east out of the lot. going into the building. >>it's probably going to be a good deal. ten-four. it's a good deal, i got the call from hear because i can see him perfectly. (man on radio) he's asking for the money. counting out the money to the guy now. [indistinct] has the money. he's on the move. >>he's doing it no doubt. (man on radio) the guy's having a problem counting the money. >>it's 'cause he's high. (man on radio)getting out of the vehicle now.

ten-four. >>yeah, this one right here. (man on radio) ready? >>yup. pull up, cover. don't move, don't move. hands up, hands up. >>what did i do? what did i do? >>put the purse down. >>there's some zanex in there and some oxys. >>it looks like we have four to five different types. we got the oxys, we got the zanex, these are probably percasets. this scrip was filled out on the 4th, two days ago for 150. and he only has left maybe 30. (mariana) so is it usually this easy? >>it's usually this easy. this isn't your pain clinic, this is just your pharmacy. the pain clinics, there's more and more people down there. >>so you spent 30 minutes in front of that pharmacy and in 30 minutes you got three people willing to sell you drugs?

>>yup. (mariana) the couple arrested are small time. selling pills just to support a habit. >>i'm going to start feeling sick soon if i don't have my medication. (mariana) the penalties they face are stiff. >>both of them are facing three year minimum inventories. she had a 5.1 total oxys. and he had 5.2 grams. (mariana) the total weight they were carrying was just a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly 9 million oxycontin pills that were prescribed by just 50 doctors in florida in the last six months of 2008. for the sheriff's department, this is a pretty classic case. despite the alarming number of pills being prescribed by doctors in broward county. on paper, it's all practically legal. the reality is it's easier to go after people who are illegally selling a few pills on the streets than the few

doctors who might be prescribing them to addicts. the question then really comes down to one of ethics. and that oath that every doctor takes. >>it really, really bothers me they do take that oath. first, do no harm. and that's all these people are doing is harm. (mariana) i contacted several of the clinics in this place hoping to speak to the doctor or the owner. hello, my name is mariana van zeller i'm a reporter from current tv. and i'm working on a documentary about prescription. hello? hello? i'm doing a documentary about prescription drug abuse. i was wondering if i could speak to either the doctor or the owners of the clinic please? most pain clinics hung up on me. the one that we visited that had the people from out of state in the parking lot had this tod say. you're not taking out of state patients? since when?

and after several attempts to speak with someone at the clinic who chased us away, i finally managed to get a person on the line. a lot of the doctors who we spoke to in law enforcement say that a lot of addicts actually go to your clinic to get prescription drugs because they say it's very easy, do you care to comment? i would love to be able to do an on camera interview with you. would you be available, we could come ... but with doctors in florida prescribing oxy at five times the national average, people driving into the state from all over the u.s., to get their pills and an average of 11 floridians dying every day from prescription overdoses, the reality here in florida is becoming difficult to ignore. in july, facing mounting pressure, the governor approved a law to create a prescription drug monitoring program. state representative kelly skidmore was instrumental in

getting the bill passed. >>this prescription drug monitoring program, it's not a silver bullet. it's not going to stop all of this unscrupulous behavior. but it is going to allow the state of florida to have some regulation over pain clinics for the first time ever. (mariana) but after so many years of inaction, for many, the damage has already been done. >>the thousands of people that die every year in the state of florida is damage you can't recover from. florida's prescription drug monitoring program is only supposed to be going into effect at the end of 2010. and in the meantime, maureen continues to check on her son todd every day. after drew passed away in 2002 i had his graduation picture made into a small picture so i could put it into my car. i'm in my car everyday so he's just in my heart. and then when stephanie died, i put the wedding picture of todd and stephanie. i just hope they're watching

down from heaven and watching all of us. so we're pulling up to todd's apartment right now, like i said, it's a mile away from my house so i could check on him a couple times a day just to be sure that everything's ok. can you imagine, 27 years old having to have your mom check on you, that's the disease of addiction. (mariana) maureen found out earlier this morning that todd was using pills again. i didn't hear from todd last night and i didn't hear from him this morning and that's not a good sign. i get really anxious when he doesn't answer that phone. so i just found out that these were all over his nightstand here. (mariana) were you angry at him when you saw ... >>no i was just scared. i thought for sure i was going to find him dead this morning >>i get the detox lecture about going into detox.

i need to get into decision by the end of today. that's what she says. >>come on, couldn't go. i've been there too many times. it's embarrassing going back and i'd rather just deal with it at my house. >>do you think that todd will ever be completely clean? >>after 16 years of going through this, no. no, and do i think that he's in the 5 percent that will recover? no, i think this is the way his life will be the rest of his life. >>the big thing now is to just keep todd alive. we are defenseless against the disease of addiction but we'll keep trying. that's what moms do.