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American pain : how a young felon and his ring of doctors unleashed America's deadliest drug epidemic / John Temple.

by Temple, John, 1969-

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Lyons Press, [2015]

American Pain (Firm)

Oxycodone abuse -- United States.

Opioid abuse -- United States.

Medication abuse -- United States.

Drug traffic -- Florida -- Fort Lauderdale.

Drug traffic -- United States.

9781493007387 (hc.)

1493007386 (hc.)

xv, 299 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The king of the Florida pill mills was American Pain, a mega-clinic expressly created to serve addicts posing as patients. American Pain's doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts. Oxycodone is a semi-synthetic opiate made by modifying the chemical thebaine, which comes from Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. Inked muscle-heads ran the clinic's security. Former strippers operated the pharmacy, counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats, the doctors carried guns -- and it was all legal -- sort of. American Pain was the brainchild of Chris George, a 27-year-old convicted drug felon. Chris George grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. He and his twin brother hung out with mobsters and invested in strip clubs. In 2008, a local doctor told the brothers about the burgeoning underground market for lightly regulated prescription painkillers. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense the meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, Chris George teamed up with the doctor. No appointment was necessary. Two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, and 90 percent of the pills his doctors prescribed flowed north. Meanwhile, hundreds more pain clinics popped up in the Sunshine State. The rise and fall of the pill mill, and how it helped tip the nation into its current opioid crisis, the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. The story of a band of wealthy bad boys, thugs and real physicians who built American Pain, as well as penniless Kentucky clans who transformed themselves into painkiller trafficking rings. The stories of addicts whose lives were devastated by American Pain's drugs, and the federal agents and grieving mothers who labored for years to bring the clinic to justice.

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