A Mississippi friend writes about the oxycontin plague:
I have some experience with "pain clinics" myself. Swear to God I've never personally patronized one myself, but I do know some people who have, and I accompanied them once on one of their "doctor's visits".
The location was an office park situated next to an upscale residential area in a Mississippi Gulf Coast community. I'm still kind of shocked that such an establishment dared to operate in this State - where the authorities pointedly do not make nice with drug crime - but I suppose attitudes are more lax down there.
The appointment was for a Saturday morning, and we get to this place - to stand in a line for over an hour which stretched around the building and down the street. After paying a $100 fee for a perfunctory examination, my acquaintance emerged with prescriptions for the opiate painkiller Hydrocodone, Xanax for anxiety, and the muscle relaxant Soma.
Every single person in line that I talked to was there for the same thing, and all received similar "treatment". You'd think it might set off alarm bells at the local drug stores when armies of people inundate the town who all have identical (and large) prescriptions for controlled substances, but I guess not.
Acquaintance made another "appointment" for the next month as well, and I again agreed to give the person a ride. We get there, and there's nobody home. Guess they moved on.