American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic
- ISBN-10
- 1493019597
- ISBN-13
- 9781493019595
- Category
- True Crime
- Pages
- 304
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-09-29
- Publisher
- Rowman & Littlefield
- Author
- John Temple
Description
* Finalist for the Edgar® Award in Best Fact Crime * New York Post, “The Post’s Favorite Books of 2015” * Suspense Magazine’s “Best True Crime Books of 2015” * Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year in True Crime * Publishers Weekly, Big Indie Book of Fall 2015 The king of the Florida pill mills was American Pain, a mega-clinic expressly created to serve addicts posing as patients. From a fortress-like former bank building, American Pain’s doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran the clinic’s security. Former strippers operated the pharmacy, counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats, the doctors carried guns—and it was all legal… sort of. American Pain was the brainchild of Chris George, a 27-year-old convicted drug felon. The son of a South Florida home builder, Chris George grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting, he and his twin brother hung out with mobsters, invested in strip clubs, brawled with cops, and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled, a local doctor clued in the brothers to the burgeoning underground market for lightly regulated prescription painkillers. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense the meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, Chris George teamed up with the doctor, and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, and 90 percent of the pills his doctors prescribed flowed north to feed the rest of the country’s insatiable narcotics addiction. Meanwhile, hundreds more pain clinics in the mold of American Pain had popped up in the Sunshine State, creating a gigantic new drug industry. American Pain chronicles the rise and fall of this game-changing pill mill, and how it helped tip the nation into its current opioid crisis, the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. The narrative swings back and forth between Florida and Kentucky, and is populated by a gaudy and diverse cast of characters. This includes the incongruous band of wealthy bad boys, thugs and esteemed physicians who built American Pain, as well as penniless Kentucky clans who transformed themselves into painkiller trafficking rings. It includes addicts whose lives were devastated by American Pain’s drugs, and the federal agents and grieving mothers who labored for years to bring the clinic’s crew to justice.
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Enforcer: A Life Fighting Crime
By Graeme PearsonWe arrived to find the shop owner had three trusted staff who had worked with him for a number of years. The four staff dispensed loans from behind a ...
-
Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage
By Karen KissaneAt 12.10 pm, Juliedropped by Warren's office and said, 'I didn't have any breakfast and I'm ... Warren wason the phone;she said briefly, 'No worries.
-
Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South
By Karen L. CoxThere, Charles became the rector of St. James Church in Port Gibson, a small town about halfway between Natchez and Vicksburg. Why he left after serving Christ Church for nearly three decades is a mystery, though his marriage to a ...
-
Texas Lawmen, 1835-1899: The Good and the Bad
By Clifford R. Caldwell, Ron DeLordA 04 - Cherry Wesley 34-W: 18 11, D. 19 - Christian, James Ineligible 22, D, 14 - Clark. Alvin A. On File 21, A, 13 - Clark. David Ineligible 26. A 12 - Clark. William A. 59–E: 25 19, D, 16 - Clendennen, Robert Ned 45–W: 24 09, D 09 ll.
-
Poisoned Vows
By Clifford L. LinedeckerThere was no sign in the house of the $10,000 Clark had withdrawn from the credit union the previous day or of his billfold with the $500 to $600 pocket money he usually carried around with him. Two rings he wore were still on his ...
-
Smooth Operator: The True Story of Seductive Serial Killer Glen Rogers
By Clifford L. LinedeckerRogers spent the night at the Clark County Detention Center, and was released the next afternoon. ... The white 1979 Mercury was owned by Russell E. Wright of Hamilton and still carried the Ohio license tags when the officers spotted it ...
-
Monster
By Allan HallIncluding exclusive photographs and previously unseen evidence, this is a truly heart-stopping record of one of the most elaborate and disturbing cases of abuse in modern times.
-
Missy's Murder: Passion, Betrayal, and Murder in Southern California
By Karen KingsburyThree years later, a surprise witness exposed the murderers as Missy’s two best friends—one of whom was Karen. New York Times–bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers a story full of twists, turns, betrayals, and confessions.
-
Deep Deception: The relentless investigation to bring George Gibney, Derry O’Rourke, Ger Doyle and other abusers to justice
By Justine McCarthyLinda Jones of Howard House, a child abuse therapy centre in north London, has described organised networks as working 'in cells, like terrorist cells. No paedophile who is linked knows of more than one other, so they'll use a child, ...
-
Buckinghamshire Murders
By Dr Jonathan OatesHatto had earlier worked for Mr Plummer of Gray's, near Henley. The farmhouse was a modern brick building and was located on the site of the ancient Abbey Farm, having been rebuilt for John Pocock (now deceased) some years previously.