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PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — A Pinellas county doctor is in jail for allegedly promoting and writing greater than 550 fake prescriptions for opioids.
On high of that, when police served a search warrant at Dr. Neelam Uppal’s home and workplace, they discovered greater than $1.9-million {dollars} in money, round $175,000 price of gold bars and a number of prescription pads.
The Bay Area is all too conversant in the opioid epidemic. Research from the Tampa Bay Partnership exhibits practically three folks died day by day from an overdose in 2019.
“Late 90s, early 2000s, when I first really started getting into it, I remember a time when we used to go to three or four different doctors before they had the databases,” stated Nathan Cantie who’s a drug dependancy survivor and now an advocate of overcoming addition. He works with a corporation referred to as the Hope Shot, which is an area restoration group.
Cantie nonetheless remembers how prescription meds modified the course of his life. “You become so physically dependent on these drugs that no matter what, you have to have them,” stated Cantie.
Allison Grace was residing with dependancy in 2013 and it began with a capsule mill doctor.
“But because she was over 18, doctors didn’t have to communicate with our mother. So, she got addicted. There were no reg-flag laws back then,” stated Allison’s sister, Jennifer Webb.
Webb stated there weren’t even any administration methods again then to ensure medical doctors weren’t overprescribing prescription meds to individuals who didn’t want them. “And she ended up becoming addicted to oxycontin, trying to get into recovery, working really hard at it,” stated Webb.
Webb stated her sister relapsed a number of occasions, like many who reside with dependancy, till it received too tough for her.
“But she hit a point of despair and instead of trying one more time, she took her life while we were running towards her begging her to put the gun down,” stated Webb.
Allison was simply 19 years outdated. She would have been 28 subsequent week. Webb stated that traumatic occasion modified the trajectory of her life. She now works with an opioid consciousness non-profit referred to as Live Tampa Bay.
“Making sure that families like mine don’t have the same kind of heartache and tragedy that my family experienced,” stated Webb.
Cantie advises folks to avoid medical doctors keen to write down prescriptions below the desk as a result of it might probably develop into a slippery slope towards dependancy.
“It seems innoxious, you know, it seems harmless. You’re getting a prescription. You can justify it, you know, my doctor gave this to me; but what they don’t see is what’s in the future which is a dire physical dependence that’s ultimately going to lead them to dark places,” stated Cantie.
If you or somebody you recognize is battling dependancy, listed here are some hyperlinks that may be useful:
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