By HANA KIM
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - With the prescription pill epidemic spiraling out of control, overdose deaths have skyrocketed recently in East Tennessee.
6 News sat down with former addict Stacie Allison, who says she was close to overdosing on pills. "I knew I was going to die in it, and I needed to get help," she said.
For 13 years, Stacie lived for her opiate addiction and thrived on the euphoric high she got from prescription pills.
It didn't matter how many times she was locked up or how much her five children needed her. "I've put my family through hell, my children you know. I walked off and left my children. My children has seen me being abused," she said.
Stacie says she became addicted after she was given a legitimate prescription for narcotics following some complications with her first pregnancy. She says the pills made all her physical and emotional troubles go away, and soon she was addicted.
At one point, she was taking up to five 80-milligram OxyContin pills a day.
Most of her pills came from street dealers, but a steady flow came from doctors. "I had one doctor, I went in and he never saw an X-ray and he was giving me four OxyContin 80s a day. There are crooked doctors right here in Knoxville," Stacie said.
UT Medical Center emergency room Dr. Kip Wenger says most local doctors are not to blame. He says many are aware of how dangerously addictive opiates can be.
However, Dr. Wenger admits it only takes a few doctors in one community to flood the streets with pills.
"A very small amount of doctors are responsible for a huge number of prescriptions. We can look at the prescriptions that a patient is on and based on the three or four different medicines that they are on, get an idea of what pain clinic, for instance they are coming from. Every patient gets the same medicine. That doesn't pass the sniff test for me," Dr. Wenger said.
Wenger is reminding everyone in the medical profession to take the extra time to do the homework on a patient, and not to make it a practice to prescribe narcotics every time someone is in pain.
"There are also illegitimate pain management practices out there in our own community. I think those need to be eradicated," Dr. Wenger said. "If you are prescribing these medicines, you should know what the patients take. You should know why they are taking it."
Pharmacist Don Walker, who owns Village Pharmacy in Maryville, says there is no question some doctors are over-prescribing. He turns away more than 90% of new customers seeking opiates.
"Multiple doctors and multiple pharmacies are always a flag. We turn them away and turn them in usually, if they do that," Walker said.
Stacie Allison says it's all about preventing people from getting hooked in the first place. She believes doctors are the ones with the most power to make a difference, to curb what seems to be an endless supply.
And for the few doctors who are abusing the prescription pad, the mother of five wants them to know this. "You are killing people. You are hurting families. You have got to stop. You are taking mothers away from their children. People are dying."
Stacie has been clean for more than a year now. She credits her family and faith as she continues to beat the craving, something she once believed was impossible to do.
"Absolutely, absolutely it looks like such a giant. It looks hopeless. It's never ever hopeless. Don't give up. And for family and friends, don't give up on someone. Don't ever give up on someone," she said.
Experts say getting clean from prescription pills is extremely hard. They say most people will relapse several times before they're successful.
However, if someone can stay clean for more than five years, experts say that's truly the road to recovery.
They also advise recovering addicts not to make stressful life changes for the first few years.
"It looks hopeless. It's never ever hopeless. Don't give up. And for family and friends, don't give up on someone. Don't ever give up on someone," Stacie Allison said.
