04-24-2022, 12:26 AM
Twin brothers Chris (right) and Jeff George were behind a massive pill mill operation in South Florida.
Zuma Press
Late in 2007, Chris George, a 27-year-old former convict with no medical training, opened his first pain pill clinic in South Florida. With no laws to stop him, George and his twin brother, Jeff, were about to become kingpins, running pills up and down I-75 — quickly dubbed “Oxy Alley.”
In his new book “American Pain” (Lyons Press), author John Temple chronicles the rise and fall of the George brothers and how hard it was for law enforcement to shut them down.
At their height, George’s six South Florida pain clinics, the largest of which he called American Pain, saw thousands of patients a day.
It all began innocently enough. In the early 1990s, a relatively small pharmaceutical company called Purdue Pharma had developed an extended-release morphine drug called OxyContin. Since the pill broke down slowly in the digestive system, the company was allowed to put higher doses of the active ingredient, oxycodone, into each pill — up to 160 milligrams.
Essentially synthetic heroin in pill form, oxycodone alters the perception of pain while decreasing anxiety and elevating mood.
Drug users quickly figured out how to get around the time-release: Crushing the pills, then shooting or snorting them up, delivered an immediate, powerful rush, as addictive as any hard street drug.
Purdue Pharma launched a counter-offensive, hiring “experts” to talk to the media about the under-treatment of pain.
They poured millions of dollars into internal research that conveniently found OxyContin addictive in less than 1 percent of patients.
The drug was a game-changer. Before OxyContin, pain drugs of this caliber were limited to treatments for bone cancers and end-of-life pain management. But Purdue — along with other Big Pharma companies developing similar oxycodone-based products — began pushing the drug for treatment of vague chronic conditions like back pain.
For the George twins, Florida was the best place to open pain clinics. The state had no centralized prescription database. Anyone could open a pain-pill clinic — no license or authorization required — and doctors were legally permitted to sell drugs directly to patients.
So Chris George hired one doctor and another and another, until he had a raft of them. He paid them per patient, incentivizing large and frequent prescriptions.
By now, doctors in Florida were ordering nine times more oxycodone-based pills than doctors in the other 49 states combined — 41.2 million doses to 4.8 million collectively.
American Pain alone prescribed almost 20 million pills over two years.
OxyContin was the backbone of the brothers’ empire.
Getty Images
The clinic’s top performer was a young doctor named Cynthia Cadet. During her 16-month tenure, Cadet became the No. 1 writer of scrips for oxycodone pills in the country — some days seeing more than 70 patients.
“Everyone loved that fact that she generally wrote big scrips,” Temple writes. “Even on the first visit.”
But the FBI and the DEA soon targeted American Pain, which did not operate discreetly.
George’s clinics were staffed with strippers; heavily tattooed bouncers patrolled the parking lots in golf carts. Doctors carried guns. Clients were peeing on the sidewalk, shooting up in the parking lot, dealing drugs in plain view.
On Wednesday, March 3, 2010, the FBI raided George’s home, along with American Pain and six other clinics.
That year, Cadet stood trial for distributing narcotics for non-medical reasons and a resultant seven deaths. In fact, Cadet alone had served 51 patients whose deaths could be linked to prescription pills.
Cadet was found not guilty. Her defense: How could she possibly know if patients were lying about their pain levels?
Dr. Cynthia Cadet leaves court in July 2013.
ZUMAPRESS.com
Facing a possible life sentence, George eventually agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and was given a reduced 17½ -year sentence.
In the wake of the trial and the media coverage it generated, Florida changed many of its laws and established a prescription-pill database to minimize doctor-shopping.
“So the pill mills left Florida, to great fanfare,” Temple writes. “But, unabated and under the radar, the country’s appetite for pills has only continued to grow.” Last year, the number of kilograms of Oxy produced in America jumped from 131,500 to 149,375 — three times greater than in 2004.
And the very agency involved with the takedown of George’s pill mills is partly to blame.
I know many more became addicted. Did not realize one twin was a convicted felon. Good start. It was a major legal case that started them downward.
A family had an appointment and something like a car accident, or a train hitting their car, of patients waiting days, made the news. And people were fed up with the crime and all the extras hanging around.
Meet the George brothers — the oxy kingpin twins - How ...hxxps://heroin.palmbeachpost.com › meet-george-brothe...
Jun 27, 2018 — At least 50 overdose deaths reportedly linked to that oxy. ... $4.5 million was hidden by the twins' mother in her attic.
hxxps://nypost.com/2015/09/13/twin-brothers-build-drug-empire-with-help-from-doctors-strippers/
Zuma Press
Late in 2007, Chris George, a 27-year-old former convict with no medical training, opened his first pain pill clinic in South Florida. With no laws to stop him, George and his twin brother, Jeff, were about to become kingpins, running pills up and down I-75 — quickly dubbed “Oxy Alley.”
In his new book “American Pain” (Lyons Press), author John Temple chronicles the rise and fall of the George brothers and how hard it was for law enforcement to shut them down.
At their height, George’s six South Florida pain clinics, the largest of which he called American Pain, saw thousands of patients a day.
It all began innocently enough. In the early 1990s, a relatively small pharmaceutical company called Purdue Pharma had developed an extended-release morphine drug called OxyContin. Since the pill broke down slowly in the digestive system, the company was allowed to put higher doses of the active ingredient, oxycodone, into each pill — up to 160 milligrams.
Essentially synthetic heroin in pill form, oxycodone alters the perception of pain while decreasing anxiety and elevating mood.
Drug users quickly figured out how to get around the time-release: Crushing the pills, then shooting or snorting them up, delivered an immediate, powerful rush, as addictive as any hard street drug.
Purdue Pharma launched a counter-offensive, hiring “experts” to talk to the media about the under-treatment of pain.
They poured millions of dollars into internal research that conveniently found OxyContin addictive in less than 1 percent of patients.
The drug was a game-changer. Before OxyContin, pain drugs of this caliber were limited to treatments for bone cancers and end-of-life pain management. But Purdue — along with other Big Pharma companies developing similar oxycodone-based products — began pushing the drug for treatment of vague chronic conditions like back pain.
For the George twins, Florida was the best place to open pain clinics. The state had no centralized prescription database. Anyone could open a pain-pill clinic — no license or authorization required — and doctors were legally permitted to sell drugs directly to patients.
So Chris George hired one doctor and another and another, until he had a raft of them. He paid them per patient, incentivizing large and frequent prescriptions.
By now, doctors in Florida were ordering nine times more oxycodone-based pills than doctors in the other 49 states combined — 41.2 million doses to 4.8 million collectively.
American Pain alone prescribed almost 20 million pills over two years.
OxyContin was the backbone of the brothers’ empire.
Getty Images
The clinic’s top performer was a young doctor named Cynthia Cadet. During her 16-month tenure, Cadet became the No. 1 writer of scrips for oxycodone pills in the country — some days seeing more than 70 patients.
“Everyone loved that fact that she generally wrote big scrips,” Temple writes. “Even on the first visit.”
But the FBI and the DEA soon targeted American Pain, which did not operate discreetly.
George’s clinics were staffed with strippers; heavily tattooed bouncers patrolled the parking lots in golf carts. Doctors carried guns. Clients were peeing on the sidewalk, shooting up in the parking lot, dealing drugs in plain view.
On Wednesday, March 3, 2010, the FBI raided George’s home, along with American Pain and six other clinics.
That year, Cadet stood trial for distributing narcotics for non-medical reasons and a resultant seven deaths. In fact, Cadet alone had served 51 patients whose deaths could be linked to prescription pills.
Cadet was found not guilty. Her defense: How could she possibly know if patients were lying about their pain levels?
Dr. Cynthia Cadet leaves court in July 2013.
ZUMAPRESS.com
Facing a possible life sentence, George eventually agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and was given a reduced 17½ -year sentence.
In the wake of the trial and the media coverage it generated, Florida changed many of its laws and established a prescription-pill database to minimize doctor-shopping.
“So the pill mills left Florida, to great fanfare,” Temple writes. “But, unabated and under the radar, the country’s appetite for pills has only continued to grow.” Last year, the number of kilograms of Oxy produced in America jumped from 131,500 to 149,375 — three times greater than in 2004.
And the very agency involved with the takedown of George’s pill mills is partly to blame.
I know many more became addicted. Did not realize one twin was a convicted felon. Good start. It was a major legal case that started them downward.
A family had an appointment and something like a car accident, or a train hitting their car, of patients waiting days, made the news. And people were fed up with the crime and all the extras hanging around.
Meet the George brothers — the oxy kingpin twins - How ...hxxps://heroin.palmbeachpost.com › meet-george-brothe...
Jun 27, 2018 — At least 50 overdose deaths reportedly linked to that oxy. ... $4.5 million was hidden by the twins' mother in her attic.
hxxps://nypost.com/2015/09/13/twin-brothers-build-drug-empire-with-help-from-doctors-strippers/
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