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Walton Commission Holds Executive Session
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Florida Pulls Restrictions on Gulf Fishing
Source: Associated Press
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Head of Spill Response Visits Tyndall
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Coastal Community Bank Taken Over by FDIC, Arkansas Bank
Source: FDIC
Panama City Police Searching for Burglary Suspects
Source: Panama City Police Department
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Panama City, Fla:
Prescription opiates—- the Bay County Sheriff’s Office is calling them the worst drug since crack cocaine.
“It’s an epidemic I’ve never seen anything like this before… It’s out of control,” said Captain Faith Bell.
Even Panama City’s elite are involved in the drug. Paula Pappas, Panama City surgeon Dr. James Pappas’ wife, is charged with trafficking and forgery.
The Bay County’s Sheriff’s Office says she signed her husband’s signature on multiple MRI orders. She’s one of six people involved in the ring.
Those MRI results were then taken to South Florida pain clinics where multiple prescriptions of Oxycodone and Xanax were prescribed and filled.
Capt. Bell says the doctors want an MRI on file to cover their tracks.
“It doesn’t matter if anything’s wrong with you. They just want the MRI,” she said.
Close to 5,000 pills were obtained through the prescriptions. That’s about $150,000 worth on the street.
Capt. Bell says it’s common for addicts to work together to get the pills.
“They help each other out simply because they know at some point they’re going to be without and they don’t want somebody not to help them out,” she said.
She says being without is not something these addicts want. She says opiates have the most violent withdrawals she’s ever seen, worse than any other drug. She says that’s why they go to such great lengths to get them.
...and who pays for those MRI’s? We do. Every time a new claim is filed and the insurance company is billed, we are charged with higher rates (for those few who can still afford health coverage). It is sad that there is so much prescription drug abuse now that people would risk their lives to get a fix. President Obama is right, we do need a change. We need health reform, now not tomorrow. It’s time for the working class get a break instead of continuing to pay for somebody else’s good time.
a drug is a drug. lock’em all up…
well when are they gonna start sentencing them like you sentence people for crack cocaine???? but we all know the answer to that!!! “never” its a white collar drug…. if ya dont think its true then maybe youshould check out bay county clerk of courts and compare the sentences given.it speaks for itself..
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You are an absolute moron if you think the working class will get anything out of this health reform crap. That moron on the white house is lying out his A$$ to all of us. Get some education on what it will cost you if that idiot gets his way….I’m middle class…my insurance premiums go from 500/yr to over 6000….and climbing everytime that crook opens his mouth.