Just heard the weirdest thing on Dr Drew.

[Gina]

Dr Drew has a new show on HLN (headline news) and he said there are people who have plastic surgeries just to get the opiates/drugs.
Egads. :0!

I never would have thought of that.

[mattj]

I found a forum awhile back for people who work in an ER to share stories. Having people show up and feign injury just to get drugs was a common theme w/ examples of some patients getting on the phone and trying to sell them while still waiting for a ride home from the ER... IV drug users getting admitted just to get their veins properly tapped so they could sneak outside and shoot up. Those were some of the tamer stories.

[Spartana]

Dr Drew has a new show on HLN (headline news) and he said there are people who have plastic surgeries just to get the opiates/drugs.
Egads. :0!

I never would have thought of that.

This would be a pretty expensive (and painful) way to get drugs. Seems it be much cheaper and less time consuming to just hit up your local neighborhood drug dealer.

[ApatheticNoMore]

This would be a pretty expensive (and painful) way to get drugs. Seems it be much cheaper and less time consuming to just hit up your local neighborhood drug dealer.

+1. I mean I guess some people don't know any drug dealers to call (or need to go into some form of denial to justify really "needing" the drugs). But yea calling a drug dealer is a much easier way.

[jennipurrr]

This would be a pretty expensive (and painful) way to get drugs. Seems it be much cheaper and less time consuming to just hit up your local neighborhood drug dealer.

That is what I was thinking...there has to be an easier way! I would think dr shopping at the doc in the boxes and feigning "back pain" would be the way to go. Or maybe order them on the internet if you can still do that. Plastic surgery is usually not covered by medicaid or insurance so that would be really expensive, but I guess the bonus is that you get some work done.

[Gina]

I doubt DrDrew was talking about people who were hurting for money. I too would think Doctor shopping for 'pain killers' like Limbaugh did would be the way to go if you needed them that badly.

I don't think going to a drug dealer would be the way to go for a couple reasons - if you get your drugs from a doctor you can rationalize to yourself that you really dont have a drug problem. And.. there is the safety issue. From a corner drug dealer, you really have no idea of the quality of what you are buying.

[domestic goddess]

When dh was alive, he had chronic kidney stones due to a metabolic problem. I mean, he passed over 100 of them during his lifetime! When it got bad enough that he would go to the ER, at first he would have to wait for pain meds until he had an IVP or CAT scan, due to drug seekers using the excuse of "kidney stones" so frequently. Soon, though, he had a thick enough old chart, and a number of the staff knew him, that they didn't make him wait. But I guess that the popularity of "kidney stones" didn't wane among those going to the ER, looking for drugs.
I never really understood the appeal of going to the ER, since they would make people wait before they gave any medication, but maybe that was really the best way, if you are going to do such a thing.

[ApatheticNoMore]

If I was a drug addict (I'm very clean and sober really), I'd definitely do the drug dealer over the ER. The ER has 8 hour waits when you come in there with REAL problems!!! Oh and I think drug adulteration is not nearly as wide spread as people think. Suffice to say I don't know anyone who has had problems with adulterated drugs from dealers.

Of course you can't rationalize seeing a drug dealer, you are a user (and probably an addict) plain and simple. It's also probably not the cheapest way to get drugs.

[Gina]

Maybe the moral of the story is that people who are drug addicts are not thinking as clearly as non-users, and will do whatever they have to in order to get their fix.