Don’t trip out on the title, forget Pablo Escobar, Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas, the drug game of the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are long gone and the new drug pusher is your local Physician. Today’s drug dealers no longer hang out in school yards and back allies, they’re in our hospitals and clinics.
Prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Ativan, and hydrocodone have taken over the mainstream and have inevitably taken more lives than it helped. From Heath Ledger to Brittney Murphy the prescription drug game has blown up dramatically over the years, and the days of alcohol being the only drug habit are long gone, nowadays many more people are abusing multiple prescription drugs than ever before.
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So what’s the difference between your regular street corner drug dealers vs. your white lab coat stethoscope-around-the-neck doctor?
Simple, the dude on the corner has to watch his back for rival drug dealers while at the same time protecting himself from cops and he only has his crew to watch his back.
The doctor sitting in his office however, doesn’t have to worry about competition because there is more than enough money to go around, and as for protection, the doctors have the Food And Drug administration protecting them because they say the prescription drugs they hand out are completely safe with few side effects.
Which goes to show that our dug laws in this country are not only dangerous but run counter to what we should be doing. OxyContin and Vicodin hurt more than they help, it’s a quick fix that becomes addictive and leads to death. Like Chris Rock said;
‘Ain’t no money in the cure, the money’s in the medicine…that’s how a drug dealer makes his money, on the comeback.’
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Getting more people hooked and handing out more prescriptions tabs is a continuous cycle that doesn’t help anyone. The doctors, the patients and the laws need to change their approach when it comes to drugs in this country.
That’s why Lil Wayne’s doctor belongs in jail. One example is Carlos Estiandan, a 68-year-old doctor, who, during a three-month period in 2008, singlehandedly hustled more prescription drugs to his patients than all the doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore combined.
The FEDS put the heat on Estiandan when they pulled over a truck filled with opiates and cough syrup containing codeine made out in the doctor’s name.
Cough syrup mixed with 7-Up and red Jolly Rancher candies is a popular drink among Southern rappers. It is commonly known as Sippin Syrup or Sizzurp.
Estiandan was charging a c-note to write prescriptions and was seeing 40 patients a day, now that sounds like a drug empire to us, there were lines outside the door. Sounds like the good doctor had a crazy hustle going on. Estiandan was charged with, and convicted of, providing a controlled substance to an addict and providing a controlled substance without a legitimate medical purpose. He was sentenced to five years in state prison. 5 years for providing prescription drugs?
