DAY FOUR: Prescription for addiction - Man's struggle with opiates led him on a path to destruction
For the better part of a decade, Andrew Bagley awoke each morning to a habit, a willful scourge that demanded a quick fix before coffee, a maintenance high to get out of bed. DAY FOUR: Prescription for addiction - Officials work on creation of drug database
State officials bent on making inroads against Montana's prescription drug crisis have urged creation of a database that doctors and pharmacists could use to see if patients are obtaining multiple prescriptions from numerous doctors. DAY FOUR: Prescription for addiction - Health Department to create drug abuse focus group
The hydra-headed problem of prescription drug abuse has struck a chord with the Missoula City-County Health Department, and the agency is developing a focus group to address the crisis. DAY THREE: Prescription for addiction - Painkillers only a click away
Despite recent efforts to regulate Internet pharmacies, the majority of Web sites peddling controlled drugs do not require a prescription. As a result, a vast unregulated online drug bazaar has emerged, according to officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration. DAY THREE: Prescription for addiction - A family broken by opiate use
Before she was an opiate addict with three children in state custody, before she realized that years of drug use had taken a devastating toll on her life, Amy Johnson was a committed stay-at-home mom, the kind of fastidious homemaker who might send June Cleaver running for a feather duster. DAY TWO: Prescription for Addiction - Painkillers for stomach condition spiraled out of control, almost ending man's life
Todd Havelka's addiction to opiate painkillers began with a crippling flare-up of pancreatitis and the decision one day, after reading a magazine article, to crush a few pills under the butt of a spoon and try a snort - “hillbilly heroin” is how the story characterized the euphoric effects of smoking, shooting or inhaling the narcotic powder. DAY ONE: Deadly legal - Abuse of painkillers fastest-growing drug problem in Montana
The face of addiction in Montana has a new look: Clean. Middle class. Legal.
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