~ TSFBC-MOTPE-PASMY-O ~ The Shoe Factories Began Closing – Merchants Of The Poor Economy – Pawnshops And Scrap Metal Yards – Opened

~ PHAATHP ~ People Had Anxiety And They Had Pain

~ B-BTFATAO-H-BALAME ~ But – By Then Fully Addicted To An Opiate – He – Began Arriving Late And Making Excuses

~ MPA ~ Modern Pharmaceutical Advertising

~ DDCTPTD ~ Direct Doctor Contact To Promote The Drug

~ Continuing Medical Education – Seminars That Were Increasingly Required For Doctors To Keep Their Licenses – By Funding – CME – Seminars – Drug Companies Could Grab The Ears Of Physicians

~ TMM-TEEIAO ~ The Morphine Molecule – The Essential Element In All Opiates

~ LNOPOE-TMMSTPHAH-IAFMS-SAITMLTC-ISAETMLTCWAAO-IESTF-KIL-ITRTAM-EH-HITBAS ~ Like No Other Particle On Earth – The Morphine Molecule Seemed To Posses Heaven And Hell – It Allowed For Modern Surgery – Saving And Improving Too Many Lives To Count – It Stunted And Ended Too Many Lives To Count With Addiction And Overdose – It Evolved Somehow To Fit – Key In Lock – Into The Receptors That All Mammals – Especially Humans – Have In Their Brains And Spines

~ DLP ~ Delivered Like Pizza

~ AIATPCOEEATRTROA-SWCOBDS-ARIMTAP-WUW-DWUTB-PTD-ISH-DWTTCBSITDNTPA-WM-WO ~ An Idea Advanced That Pain Counteracted Opiates’ Euphoric Effect And Thus Reduced The Risk Of Addiction – Soon What Can Only Be Described As – A Revolution In Medical Thought And Practice – Was Under Way – Doctors Were Urged To Begin – Prescribing These Drugs – In Some Hospitals – Doctors Were Told They Could Be Sued If They Did Not Treat Pain Aggressively – Which Meant – With Opiates

~ PWGUTDDFT ~ Patients Were Getting Used To Demanding Drugs For Treatment

~ PWDHLT ~ Problem Was Doctors Had Less Time

~ TDWAMTPCP-WHLP-MTAWMTMBCPTTOAA-T-MC ~ These Drugs Were Advertised Mostly To Primary Care Physicians – Who Had Little Pain-Management Training And Were Making Their Money By Churning Patients Through Their Offices At A – Thirteen-Minute Clip

~ NOHD-S-L-T-S ~ No One Had Done – Serious – Long-Term – Studies

~ THC-WYSTO-MCTTTP ~ The Heroin Cells – When You Stamped Them Out – More Came To Take Their Place

~ TC:LT-1%-OPTWNDATT-T-‘LT1%’-S-S ~ The Claim: Less Than – One Percent – Of Patients Treated With Narcotics Developed Addictions To Them – That – “Less Than 1 Percent” – Statistic – Stuck

~ AUORHAOBALN ~ A Union Of Recovering Heroin Addicts Organized By A Local Nonprofit

~ O-SI-1916-F-T-AOD-M-STH ~ Oxycodone – Synthesized In – 1916 – From – Thebaine – An Opium Derivative – Molecularly – Similar To Heroin

~ NOITAPCADSTHWBMALAO-T-CD ~ No One Imagined That A Pill Containing A Drug Similar To Heroin Would Be Marketed Almost Like An Over-The-Counter Drug

~ TWLAITAHTATP-WPNTCTTBTWR-‘APTAOTD’ ~ The Warning Label Also Inadvertently Told Addicts How To Abuse The Pill – Warning Patients Not To Crush The Tablets Because That Would Release – “A Potentially Toxic Amount Of The Drug”

~ AAIT-ANH-FH-WWAR-A-WFCCACFJI-TSHTBCB ~ An Addict In Treatment – Also Needed Help – Finding Housing – With Writing A Resume – And – With Finding Child Care And Clothes For Job Interviews – These Services Had To Be Close By

~ TNP-W-AUS-TWHLFYOWPHBTDOTS-BT ~ This New Product – With – Almost Unlimited Supply – Those Who Had Lived For Years On Weak Powder Heroin Began To Die On The Strong – Black Tar

~ POA-T-PMC-WAKO-CDG-IWBTH-IWA-FM-AA ~ Prescribed Opiates Aggressively – The – Pill Mill Doc – Was A Kind Of – Coup De Grace – It Was Bound To Happen – It Was A – Free Market – After All

~ HLH ~ Heroin Like Hamburgers

~ AW-CC-TNONOA-WETT-H/ER/J/C/RC/F-I-T-EIAWAWN ~ As With – Crack Cocaine – The Numbers Of New Opiate Addicts – Were Enough To Throw – Hospitals / Emergency Rooms / Jails / Courts / Rehab Centers / Families – Into – Turmoil – Especially In Areas Where Abuse Was New

~ NAPCWPM-B-TPCWOPTA-IAPRDD ~ Not All Pain Clinics Were Pill Mills – But – The Pain Clinic Was Often Prone To Abuse – It Attracted Patients Relentlessly Demanding Drugs

~ S-PO-DD-IIOTS ~ Soon – Plain Old – Drug Dealers – Got In On The Scam

~ FP-AL-TCI-N-S-CM-J-NO-LM-UMRTSTSAAFPD ~ Forgotten Places – Acted Like – The Canaries In – Now-Shuttered – Coal Mines – Just – No One – Listened Much – Until More Respectable Types Sounded The Same Alarm And Famous People Died

~ STTMM ~ Slaves To The Morphine Molecule

~ AKOJK ~ A Kind Of Junkie Kingdom

~ PBC-MVTC ~ Pills Became Currency – More Valuable Than Cash

~ ASOCSE-ATTWTPWNU-B-SPABAAJBI ~ A Sophisticated Opiate Class System Emerged – At The Top Were The People Who Never Used – But – Sold Pills And Bought Anything A Junkie Brought In

~ ACOSE-HSTTCAS-F-F-BI ~ A Conspiracy Of Silence Enveloped – Heroin Seeped Through The City And Suburbs – Few – Officials – Battling It

~ W-MAA-UTO-A-E-WLBSN-SDIF-FP ~ With – Money And Addiction – Urging Them On – Addict-Entrepreneurs – Were Like Bloodhounds Sniffing Out – Shady Docs In Far-Flung Places

~ F-P-N-H-LOB ~ First – Pills – Now – Heroin – Lots Of Both

~ DODWATSFAC ~ Drug Overdose Deaths Were About To Surpass Fatal Auto Crashes

~ COP:PP-M-ETW;BTH-M-WTE ~ Complementary Opiate Plagues: Prescription Painkillers – Moving – East To West; Black Tar Heroin – Moving – West To East

~ FDOIEY ~ Fatal Drug Overdoses Increased Every Year

~ BTH-DLP-N-Y-A-W-C-WEE ~ Black Tar Heroin – Delivered Like Pizza – New – Younger – And – Wealthier – Customers – Were Emerging Everywhere

~ ‘MB’ ~ “MisBranding”

~ OAHOPGHFTDAATPHC ~ Only A Handful Of Parent Groups Had Formed To Do Anything About This Public Health Crisis

~ FP-WCA-TNROA-S-GATPPFI-O-TTAP ~ Football Players – Were Common Among – The New Rural Opiate Addicts – Some – Got Adduced To Pills Prescribed For Injuries – Others – Took Them At Parties

~ B-AFSTCPIAFOEAPL ~ But – Ashamed Families Shrouded Their Children’s Passings In A Fog Of Euphemism And Palatable Lies

~ ESM-CKHAPBATNARTTTDUAD ~ Each Suburban Middle-Class Kid Had A Private Bedroom And The New Addicts Retreated To Them To Dope Up And Die

~ NCDIA ~ Nobody Can Do It Alone