AMERICAN PAIN (49 page)

Major sources for specific sections are cited below.

PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1

Primary sources of information were interviews with Chris George, Derik Nolan, and Jennifer Turner; courtroom testimony of George, Nolan, and Dianna Pavnick George; and other court documents. Other key sources:

•    Articles in the
Sun-Sentinel
and the
Palm Beach Post
and a Florida Traffic Crash Report provided details about the train crash.

•    The 2010 National Survey of Drug Use and Health provided the statistics about rates of prescription drug use.

•    Stories in the
Middletown Times Herald Record
and the
New York Times
provided details about the murders committed by Derik’s father.

•    The New York State Office of the Professions provided information about Dr. Rachael Gittens’s medical license.

•    The website
archive.org
allowed me to look back at the now-defunct South Florida Pain Clinic/American Pain website at different points in its existence.

CHAPTER 2

Primary sources of information were interviews with Larry Golbom and Carmel Cafiero, the Prescription Addiction Radio show website,
http://prescriptionaddictionradio.com/
, and the book
Pain Killer
, by Barry Meier. Other key sources:

•    Florida Board of Medicine records and the
Tampa Tribune
stories provided information about the case against the doctor who prescribed pills that ended up in the hands of Larry Golbom’s son.

•    David Morris’s 1993 book,
The Culture of Pain
, described the 1950s study that noted differences in the way ethnic background influences how people talk about pain.

•    Filings in the lawsuit,
The People of the State of California v. Purdue Pharma L.P. et al,
and stories in
Propublica
’s long-running “Dollars for Doctors: How Industry Money Reaches Physicians” series provided information about the promotion of prescription opioids.

•    News stories in the
Lexington Herald-Leader
and the
Huntington Herald-Dispatch
provided details about the Appalachian Pain Foundation.

•    “The OxyContin Panic and Crime Panic in Rural Kentucky,” by Kenneth D. Tunnell, published in
Contemporary Drug Problems
, Summer 2005, provided information about early OxyContin abuse.

•    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided information about the rise in drug overdose deaths.

•    A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from 2003 on OxyContin and news stories in the
Chicago Tribune
and
Richmond Times Dispatch
provided details about Purdue’s legal fight against personal-injury claims.

•    The Federal Register and the Drug Enforcement Administration Office of Diversion Control website,
www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov
, contained information about oxycodone manufacturing quotas over the years.

•    The excellent story by Guy Taylor, “Mills Making the Pills,” published in the
St. Petersburg Times
on October 30, 2011, as well as other news stories in the
Lexington Herald-Leader
and the
Weekly Standard
provided information about the DEA’s quota-setting process.

•    The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of November 4, 2011, provided the statistic that the United States manufactures enough prescription narcotics for every American adult to take a 5-milligram Vicodin every four hours for nearly a month.

•    The 2008 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board provided the statistics about the percentages of the global supply of hydrocodone and oxycodone that are consumed in the United States.

•    The 2004 book
The Truth About the Drug Companies
, by Marcia Angell, provided information about the pharmaceutical lobby.

CHAPTERS 3–4

Primary sources of information were interviews with Chris George, Derik Nolan, John Paul George, Carmel Cafiero, and Juan Ortega; courtroom testimony of George, Nolan, Dr. Patrick Graham, Ethan Baumhoff, Dr. Roni Dreszer, and Dianna Pavnick George; and other court documents. Other key sources:

•    Florida Board of Medicine records provided information about the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) inspection of South Florida Pain in June 2008.

•    The DEA Office of Diversion Control website provided a copy of the 2006 policy statement entitled “Dispensing Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain.”

•    FDOH records provided information about the clinic Dr. Gittens opened in 2008.

•    Florida court records, accessed through LexisNexis, provided information about Chris George’s arrest in August 2008.

•    The Alfred I. duPont Awards channel of
Vimeo.com
provided the video of Carmel Cafiero’s WSVN-TV report about American Pain. WSVN-TV’s website,
www.wsvn.com
, contained more information about Cafiero’s interactions with the clinic.

•    FDOH records provided information about the administrative complaints against Dr. Gittens and Dr. Joseph.

CHAPTER 5

Primary sources of information were interviews with Alice Mason, Kevin Mason, Shelby Durham, Rockcastle County coroner Billy Dowell, Reverend Tommy Miller, Rockcastle County sheriff Mike Peters, Dr. Gary Potter, Jennifer Turner, and Kurt McKenzie; the courtroom testimony of Alice Mason, Dr. Jennifer Schott, Dr. William Lee Hearn, Dr. George Behonick; and other court documents. Other key sources:

•    The “Prescription for Pain” package published by the
Lexington Herald-Leader
on January 19, 2003, provided a great deal of information about prescription drugs and corruption in Kentucky.

•    News stories in the
Lexington Herald-Leader
and the
Daily Independent
of Ashland, Kentucky, and court records provided information about the case of Dr. Roger Browne.

•    The article “Country Comfort: Vice and Corruption in Rural Settings,” by Dr. Gary Potter and Dr. Larry Gaines, published in 1992 in the
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
, provided important details about the drug scene in eastern Kentucky.

•    Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy reports provided statistics about drug overdoses and babies born addicted.

•    
Orlando Sentinel
stories provided information about Jewell Padgett.

CHAPTER 6

Primary sources of information were interviews with Chris George, Derik Nolan, and Dr. Michael Aruta; courtroom testimony of George, Nolan, Dr. Aruta, Dr. Patrick Graham, Dr. Roni Dreszer, Dr. Beau Boshers, Ethan Baumhoff, and Dianna Pavnick George; and other court documents. Other key sources:

•    A Broward County grand jury report on pill mills issued in November 2009 provided the statistic that a new pain clinic was opening every three days in the county, on average.

CHAPTER 7

Primary sources of information were interviews with Jennifer Turner, Kurt McKenzie, Barry Adams, Florida Board of Medicine member Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Tina Reed, Derik Nolan, and Chris George; the testimony of George, Nolan, Whitney Summitt, and Detective Nicholas Patriarca; and other court records, including DEA records related to the administrative hearings of American Pain doctors.

•    An
Orlando Sentinel
news story from March 3, 2011, provided the information about the amount of oxycodone distributed by Florida doctors in 2009.

•    A Rockcastle County Court arrest report provided information about the first time Barry Adams saw oxycodone 30-milligram pills in Rockcastle County.

•    A July 12, 2012, story in the
Daily Independent
of Ashland, Kentucky, and law enforcement sources provided information about the flights nicknamed “The Oxy Express.”

•    The Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s Drug Market Analysis 2011 report provided details about the Kentucky/Florida painkiller pipeline.

•    News stories in the
Tampa Tribune
and the
Sun-Sentinel
provided information about the fight to create Florida’s prescription drug database.

•    A September 2010 series in the
St. Petersburg Times
provided information about the analysis of FDOH doctor disciplinary cases.

•    The FDOH’s annual report of 2008–2009 provided information about the licensing of medical offices.

•    A
Palm Beach Post
news story on November 1, 2009, “Painkiller Clinics Use Legal Loopholes,” provided information about drug offenders who opened pain clinics.

•    A GAO report from August 2011 entitled “Prescription Drug Control” provided the statistic that Florida doctors were purchasing nine times more oxycodone than the other forty-nine states combined.

•    A
USA Today
story on February 24, 2011, entitled “Florida Raids Target Sellers of Pain Pills” contained the statistics about how many doses of oxycodone Florida doctors were buying.

•    An Ohio Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force report from October 2010 provided information about how much oxycodone Ohio doctors were buying.

CHAPTER 8

Primary sources of information were interviews with Chris George, Derik Nolan, and Nettie Stephens, operator of a store near the final American Pain location; courtroom testimony of George, Nolan, and Dianna Pavnick George; and other court documents. Other key sources:

•    An arrest report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office provided information about the December 2009 arrests of Chris George and Derik Nolan.

•    
Sun-Sentinel
and
Palm Beach Post
news stories provided information about anti–pill mill measures Florida lawmakers were proposing in late 2009 and early 2010.

•    A
Wall Street Journal
news story provided information about pill mills moving from Florida to Georgia.

CHAPTERS 9–11 AND EPILOGUE

Primary sources of information were interviews with Jennifer Turner, Kurt McKenzie, Paul Schwartz, Lawrence LaVecchio, Larry Golbom, Chris George, and Derik Nolan; courtroom testimony of George, Nolan, Ethan Baumhoff, Dr. Michael Aruta, and Dianna Pavnick George; and other court records, including DEA records related to the administrative hearings of American Pain doctors. Other key sources:

•    A
Palm Beach Post
story provided the quote from Chris George’s attorney.

•    
Lexington Herald-Leader
stories provided information about the death of Timmy York.

•    
Sun-Sentinel
stories provided information about Paul Schwartz’s life and career.

•    Stories in
Businessweek
and the
Sun-Sentinel
and a 2013 DEA presentation entitled “Prescription Drug Trafficking and Abuse Trends” provided details about the DEA’s shutdown of oxycodone wholesalers.

•    The Florida Department of Health Annual Report 2009–10 provided information about the number of pain clinics that registered with the state.

•    The
Sun-Sentinel
and
Palm Beach Post
provided information about Governor Rick Scott’s proposal to kill funding for the prescription drug database.

•    Food and Drug Administration records and the
New York Times
provided information about the new formulation of abuse-deterrent OxyContin.

•    A DEA press release provided information about the Pompano Beach firemen who allegedly started a chain of pill mills.

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

So many people helped, it’s hard to know where to start.

My writing group pals, including Daleen Berry, Dana Coester, and James Harms, read bits and pieces of the story and gave great notes. Special thanks to the group’s founders, Alison Bass and Benyamin Cohen, who read even more and provided particularly helpful advice and support. Becky Beaupre Gillespie, April Johnston, and Molly Lyons all read the book proposal and gave incisive feedback and leads; thank you all for your early and enthusiastic support. Josh Fershee and Kendra Huard Fershee read an early draft of the entire manuscript and provided excellent notes, especially regarding legal aspects of the story.

Heartfelt thanks to Ron and Leslie Marcus, who let me use their pleasant condo in Palm Beach County as my reporting headquarters for two weeks in the summer of 2013. Joel and Cheri Schwartz, my mother-in-law and father-in-law, helped make that happen, and I am grateful for that, and for their support. To my sister, Laura Hall, and the rest of her family, thanks for the cheery home and comfortable bed when I visited Louisiana.

I’m grateful to Paula McMahon of the
Sun-Sentinel
, as well as Kevin Nolan and Kim Williams, for helping me track down documents. Many thanks to Kimberly Walker and Christa Currey of the WVU Reed College of Media for their excellent promotional efforts. Thanks to Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos of the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida and Jim Marshall of the Miami office of the FBI for helping to arrange interviews in their respective offices. Anne Beagan at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, cleared the way for me to be granted additional access and documents.