Elderly sell pain pills for cash

www.cnn.com...


PRESTONSBURG, Kentucky (AP) -- Dottie Neeley, 87, was fingerprinted, photographed and thrown in jail, imprisoned as much by the tubing from her oxygen tank as by the concrete and steel around her.

The woman -- who spent two days in jail after her arrest last December -- is among a growing number of Kentucky senior citizens charged in a crackdown on a crime authorities say is rampant in Appalachia: Elderly people are reselling their painkillers and other medications to addicts.

"When a person is on Social Security, drawing $500 a month, and they can sell their pain pills for $10 apiece, they'll take half of them for themselves and sell the other half to pay their electric bills or buy groceries," Floyd County jailer Roger Webb said.


This is terrible and its a shame that some elderly get offers of money from others wanting to buy their meds!


I dont think they know they are doing anything too bad...they just want a bit extra money...

Taking advantage of the elderly is against the law.

The ones who should be punished are the ones who approach these poor old people, not the old people.

Well how about we punish nobody?

Is anyone really getting hurt by this?

Hmmm let's see....

Elderly person struggling to survive on a pension? Nope they gain.

Drug user buying off of elderly people? Mmmm I see no prob there either.
It's their own body to abuse as they wish IMO.

Pharmacautical industry? **Bingo!!!** (que flashing lights and cheering crowd).
Do I need to explain?

As far as the eldrly being taken advantage of by drug abusing deviants, I don't see that either. $10 a pill? Sounds pretty hi to me. They are a lot cheaper on the street where I live. Trust me, the old folk know what they be doin'.

[edit on 13/12/2005 by ANOK]

I have had offers to buy my VA medications or to trade them for illegal drugs and the answer is always, "NO!"

Those drugs were paid for by the taxpayer and were prescribed to me. I'm no one's middle man for a high. Even the elderly, unless demented, should have the scruples to steer clear of such a proposition.

The truth is ANOK, everyone gets hurt by this kind of immoral behavior. People like you are always quick to blame the pharmaceutical industry for all of society's ills, but whom do you expect to invest the billions necessary to fund the research and to manufacture the medicines we need to maintain our quality of life.

In reality, there should be only one punishment for selling one's taxpayer funded medication--no more meds.

[edit on 2005/12/13 by GradyPhilpott]

Grady, i think you are right. That would stop the cycle.

I would like to point out how we've advanced in the past thirty years. When I was a kid (70's) old people were eating cat food because they couldn't afford to pay the utilities and buy food.

Today we are implementing a drug plan for the elderly that will help them get their medications...

which they can make money from to buy food!

And I'm serious! We're doing something better I think.

But the grannies better be careful, age doesn't bring you the ability to be a pill-pusher and think you don't have to answer to the law. They should get smart and ask their grandkids if any of them are hooked, and just sell to them. Keep it in the family.

Valhall, around my family, WE DO!

We may not be smart, but we aint stupid

To my way of thinking, the ones who should be ashamed of themselves are the drug companies who feel it necessary to charge exhorbatant prices for drugs, especially fo rthose on fixed incomes and no insurance

I agree, but lets be realistic, it will be either the seller or the buyer who is going down. Not the evil pharmaceutical companies.
I am with you on that, nevertheless.

Who get's hurt more, the people killed by prescription drugs? Or grannies trying to feed themselves?

The immoral behaviour is your opinion BTW, one we don't share but....

No old aged person who has worked all their life should have to sell drugs to pay bills. Fix that and grannies will not need to sell their meds.

And if the pharmers didn't push their drugs harder than a street corner crack dealer, making huge profits at the expense of those it's supposed to be healing, then you cut the root.

You are not going to stop people wanting to get high, especialy when there's not much else in their lives to live for. We all like to think there is no problem in this country, that no one has to be poor, it's all their own fault.

All I'm saying is you can send granny's and druggies to jail all day long, it won't fix the problem as long as the state we live in does the same damned thing.

Fix the holes in the roof!

It really is a shame that the elderly are having to sell their painkillers just to buy stuff that they need to survive. Something should be done or said to the pharmaceutical companies to let them know that their behavior towards the elderly is reprehensible.

Very sad story, but ones here getting hurt are all of us.

This not the only sad story about our elderly, poor and needy in the country, just surviving in our old age, these are sign of what is waiting for us in the future if we are not prepared for that future.