The horrifying way some drug addicts are now getting their fix

[Cattledog]

It was the third time Heather Pereira had taken her golden retriever to the same neighborhood animal clinic in Kentucky.

The first was on a Friday in October 2014, when Pereira took the injured 4-year-old dog to the Elizabethtown Animal Hospital, not far from Louisville. After the veterinarian sewed up a cut, Pereira requested Tramadol, a drug used to treat pain in both animals and humans. She said the pup had been prescribed the medication in the past and had responded well to it, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

So the vet gave it to her.

Three days later, she returned — saying her child had flushed the pills down the toilet.

So the vet gave her more.

But it was this third time, on Dec. 4, 2014, that the veterinarian became suspicions. The dog's old cut had not yet completely healed and the animal was back with another. Again, Pereira asked for Tramadol for the dog.


“That’s when I took notice,” Chad Bailey, the veterinarian, told The Washington Post in an interview last week. “The cut looked sharp and clean — not like the kind in nature when a dog is cut on a fence or in a fight.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/01/23/some-addicts-are-so-desperate-for-drugs-that-theyre-now-taking-medication-prescribed-to-pets/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.6c33c52d7b0b

[Auggie]

1. Animal torture ... horrifying indeed!

[TrekLuver]

2. For the love of....can't you just be an alcoholic?

[sharp_stick]

3. Tramadol isn't even that

addictive but it has an SSRI effect that can really bother people that try to stop it too fast. Often several months of Prozac or a different SSRI will work for them.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. addiction makes people desperate and very one track

i have a lot of sympathy for the user and the other victims around the user

[NutmegYankee]

5. Tramadol isn't that addictive. I have a prescription for hemoraged disks on a need only basis.

Thankfully, I haven't needed it in a few months. It's a weird synthetic. Only partially counteracted by narcan, it also breaks down into an SSRI (anti-depressant). Currently it's a schedule IV drug and can be called in by a physician.

[dionysus]

6. The SSRI part is why its dangerous: because its not that strong, if ppl take a ton to get high,

they can get serotonin poisoning and have terrible seizures...

[NutmegYankee]

8. And I'm at the point where we should just put that warning on there and let what happens happen.

My house is filled with dangerous substances that can harm me. I see the warnings that drinking bleach is bad news. I don't need it controlled by some police state database to know that I shouldn't abuse/consume it. I mean, every bottle of Tylenol is a suicide dose - it clearly warns not to abuse it. And we sell it over the counter.

If it sounds a bit rough, it's because I had some delays in getting pain killers because of the junkies out there. After 36 hours in Agony (nerve pain is the worst - degenerative disc disease ), I was filled with rage, and still am to some extent, that their selfish behavior is screwing over those who truly need the stuff.

[dionysus]

11. They ruined anti anxiety meds the same way. 1mg of klonopin

A day was a miracle for crippling anxiety. After being in it for 2 years, my doc weaned me off because the state was pressuring docs over benzos.

Pissed to this day over it.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. well, clearly the answer is more drug war, bigger DEA budget, "crackdowns", longer prison sentences.

Actually, all the hyperbolic hand-waving about "the prescription drug crisis" is only resulting in people with crippling pain management needs being told to suck it up and do yoga, etc.

Perhaps not surprisingly, "getting tough" only drives more people to the black market. Or, the vet, as the case may be.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-heroin-opioid-prescription-addiction-treatment/

[anneboleyn]

10. Exactly. I have posted before that these "prescription drug hysteria" posts hurt REAL PATIENTS

There are many real pain patients, people with horrific diseases and suffering, that need the only medications that can remotely deal with the pain.

[TheFrenchRazor]

12. yep; this woman could have some psych issues, but maybe she couldn't get legitimately needed

needed pain meds, because of opiate hysteria in this country.

[Raine]

9. Disgusting hurting an animal to get yourself a fix!