Prescription drug abuse has taken hold in Georgia. In recent years, deaths connected to prescription drug abuse have been higher than those from illegal drug use in the state. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Medical Examiner's Office, overdoses from Xanax alone killed more people in Georgia last year than overdoses from cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.
Pill mills have long posed a unique challenge for Georgia law enforcement. Unfortunately, pills mills account for 30 percent of the prescription drug abuse in the state. Interstate 75 is a highway that runs through Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, and has been dubbed the "Oxycontin Highway" because addicts often travel long distances to reach a pill mill while they are "doctor shopping."
The stigma of pill mills and their negative reputation has caused one local clinic to change its name from Specialty Clinics of Georgia, Pain Management to Specialty Clinics, Spine Intervention. Dr. L. Todd Stewart is a physician at the clinic and has been administering random drug screenings at the clinic to ensure his patients are not abusing prescription drugs. When he began the screening practice, 50 to 60 percent of them were coming back positive for prescription drugs. Now, the rate is less than 20 percent of people testing positive for prescription drugs.
"I think my practice is a lot cleaner than it used to be because word on the street is, we don't even want to give opiates," Stewart said.
Dr. Gale Hansen Starich, the dean of Brenau University's graduate school and the College of Health and Science, currently teaches a course on the neurochemistry of addiction. Starich teaches students that addiction to drugs can permanently change the chemistry of the brain. This reinforces the idea that addiction affects people from all walks of life, and that is not a personality weakness.
"This is not about a lack of moral fiber or not knowing Jesus well enough," Starich said. "It's [addiction] a lifelong battle, and I don't think most people know that."
