Fatal Addiction tells that our Seniors Group now is in the number two position for drug pushers in America.Hard to believe but it's true .

Police:                                                         Elderly sell pain pills for cash Monday, December 12, 2005; Posted: 8:12 p.m. EST (01:12 GMT) Dottie Neeley, 87, of Hueysville, Kentucky, sits in a courtroom after her arrest. 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.Since April 2004, Operation UNITE, a Kentucky anti-drug task force created largely in response to rampant abuse of the powerful and sometimes lethal painkiller OxyContin, has charged more than 40 people 60 or older with selling primarily prescription drugs in the mountains."It used to be a rare occasion to have an elderly inmate," Webb said. "Five years ago it was a rarity." Local jails are having to bear the increased cost of caring for old and often sickly inmates. "You've got to give them more attention," Webb said. "It's putting a strain on my deputies. We're understaffed anyway. You've got to get them doctors, and meet their medical needs."Researchers suspect the problem is not limited to Appalachia. Elderly people "may be looking for a way to bring in a little extra money," said Erin Artigiani, deputy director of the University of Maryland Center for Substance Abuse Research. "We haven't heard a lot about senior citizens being a source of those drugs. We know college students do this. It's not much of a stretch to think that seniors could do it, too."Dr. Anita Cornett, a physician in Hyden, said one of her patients, a reformed drug addict, told her that he bought all his drugs not from a known dealer, but from elderly people.Cornett said she does random drug screenings to make sure her patients are taking their prescription drugs instead of selling them. In addition, staffers routinely call patients and ask them to bring their prescription bottles in so that the pills can be counted.The Rev. Doug Abner, pastor of Community Church in Manchester and an anti-drug activist, said senior citizens may not understand the seriousness of selling prescription drugs."They justify it because they're having a hard time financially," he said. "Left to ourselves, we can justify anything, but they're really part of the problem."However, Dan Smoot, a former state police drug detective who heads the task force, said the elderly people being charged are not necessarily struggling to put food on the table."Most of the elderly we arrest are merely continuing a family tradition," he said. "It has been part of their culture for a long time."Neeley, the old woman who was arrested along with her son and his girlfriend, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of trafficking in prescription drugs as well as marijuana.However, a prosecutor has agreed not to oppose "shock probation" if Neeley enters a guilty plea at her next court appearance, December 29. Under shock probation, a defendant who is unlikely to repeat the crime is released after getting a brief taste of life behind bars.Her attorney, Terry Jacobs, said the plea bargain would be a gamble, because the judge could decide not to grant her shock probation, and "six months is a death sentence for her."In a telephone interview, Neeley denied selling drugs. She said she suffers from emphysema and asthma and sometimes uses a wheelchair. She said she was shocked when police arrived to arrest her and made the 4-foot 8-inch, 120-pound woman walk from her house to a cruiser."I had to hold my hands up all the way," she said. "They wouldn't let me hold them down." Her lawyer declined to discuss specifics of the charges. But speaking generally, he said: "You've got a depressed economy. You've got an opportunity for these folks to make money. If you're seeing a disproportionate number of elderly, it's because they are the people who are going to be prescribed most of the drugs."---------------------------------

Same occurrence all over the world with       the economic disasters;                                       Beginning with  Georgia;                                 South Georgia farmers became wealthy from their crops of tobacco.During those days after the sale of their investments they came to town to pay off the local merchants for all they charged that year.Pockets bulged with rolls of hundred dollar bills.                            

Farmers were barely able to survive  when new warnings appeared on the products derived from tobacco.

Mary Juana, they called the new crop was introduced as a replacement.This rapidly became a cash crop and bulging pockets returned.Marijuana's hallucinogenic effects    brought on another economic boom.The law was paid off to turn his head and allow the economy to thrive once again. Farmers when caught said they didn't care, they would move over to the next county where the sheriff could care less.

Afghanastan:

Their tractors were rusting away, their barns were rotting and farming was no longer attempted.

Along came a new crop they all laughed at.How could they survive from growing flowers, especially poppies. But soon their laughter turned into what use to be, an industrious community.

From poppies came the opiates and pay-offs once again began to return. The US of A many times turned their heads at the poppy crops and did not interfere.

Why? Terrorist competition was the answer.   They paid out big bucks and the economy was once again in full force.

One day while working in a detox center pharmacy I gathered four nurses and a doctor to ask about a drug called Prozac? Are there any detox centers for the drug Prozac available and they never heard of it.I explained that in every state there is one center for Prozac detoxing.A very habitual drug.

The doctor and I got in a head to head about his prescribing OxyContin to Seniors.He said, "Won't hurt them, makes them happy and have no pains."

I did not think much of the doctors answers as he didn't figure it hurt them to get hooked on feeling good.

Then I asked the group if they knew who was number two as a pusher in America, what group?They had no idea that Seniors were but the nurses got me off to the side to agree and say that many who are prescribed Oxy do go out and sell them for a fact.If my mother were still around I wouldn't appreiate it if he was getting her hooked on drugs.But it is happening more and more to this group.

Please help me fight drug abuse, be careful.

Everett Beal Rph