The Pros And Cons Of The Illegal Opioid Addiction

The illegal opioid trade operates under the same economic rules as other commodities, such as food, clothing, housing, and gasoline. It is based on the law of supply and demand, which states that the cost increases when demand is high and supply is low. Because addicts cannot go without the opioid, demand and cost is always high.

Simply speaking, addiction is expensive.

As the addiction takes hold, illegal activities to support the addiction often become necessary because opioid addiction is expensive to maintain, especially as tolerance rises. The cost can be in the hundreds of dollars a day and can easily top tens of thousands of dollars a year, especially if the person is also abusing cocaine (http://1.usa.gov/28U4sOT). Every addict I have

This thinking is misguided. To the drug dealer, the addict is steady paying customer, nothing more. How could it be any other way when the drugs cause so much misery? Once again, it’s the insanity of addiction in all its glory.

PAINKILLERS ON THE STREET

Painkillers prescribed by a physician can sell for thousands of times what the patient paid for them at the pharmacy. It is a lucrative enterprise. In North Carolina (where I practice medicine), a Medicaid prescription for a month’s supply of a painkiller costs $3 and can sell for $1,200 or more on the street!

Let’s do the math: Oxycodone on the street sells for about $1 per mg. A typical prescription for long-acting oxycodone is 40 mg per day. A thirty-day prescription provides 1,200 mg of oxycodone (30 days X 40 mg each day). By selling the entire prescription, 1,200 mg @ $1 per mg generates $1,200 each month to the drug dealer. That represents a nearly 40,000 percent markup, an entrepreneur’s dream. And if the drug dealer will accept more legal danger, doctor shopping can multiply those returns. Sentences for drug dealers can be in the decades. Lifetime sentences are not out of the question

Dealers may claim their supply has almost dried up merely to inflate the price. Selling fake drugs is common. As the saying goes, “There is no honor among thieves.”

When a large-scale dealer is arrested (‘busted’), the economics of supply and demand are upset, and all hell breaks loose. Addicts desperately need the drug, but because the supply is low, the cost dramatically increases until new dealers renew the supply. When I receive a flurry of phone calls from the same geographic region from addicts seeking treatment, I know there was a major drug bust in that area (http://bit.ly/1dZAjKT).

When arrested, the district attorney may offer low-level drug dealers a generous plea deal to reveal the names of other drug dealers and buyers (called flipping). Unlike portrayed on TV, flipping is common (http://bit.ly/1oxiVQS).

Law enforcement agencies have done a much better job of cracking down on the diversion of painkillers. However, the consequences remain problematic because cheaper heroin can be substituted for painkillers. The consequence is a tremendous increase in overdoses from heroin and heroin mixed with