The recent death of Actor Corey Haim - famous for his role in the 80's classic "Lost Boys" - throws drug addiction back into the media spotlight again. California Attorney General Jerry Brown believed that Haim was an habitual "Doctor Shopper." Brown told reporters, "Corey Haim actually obtained 553 dangerous drugs in just this year, as late as five days before he died." According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), “Doctor shopping” by drug addicts is one of the most common ways that addicts get illegal controlled substances. Generally, this term refers to the visit by an individual—who may or may not have legitimate medical needs—to several doctors, each of whom writes a prescription for a controlled substance. The individual will visit several pharmacies, receiving more of the drug than intended by any single physician, typically for the purpose of feeding an addiction.The ease that illegal controlled substances can be obtained through Doctor Shopping should not fall on deaf ears when it comes to pre-employment or workplace drug testing. Drugs such as Oxycontin are a couple of the major substances that addicts go after. OxyContin has become a target for diverters and abusers of controlled substances because of the larger amounts of the active ingredient in relation to other previous oxycodone products and the ability of abusers to easily compromise the controlled release formulation. Simply crushing the tablet can negate the timed effect of the drug, enabling abusers to swallow, inhale, or inject the drug, which is water soluble, for a powerful morphine-like high.
There have been many instances of pharmacies being robbed strictly for their supply of OxyContin. Investigations have uncovered organized rings of individuals diverting, selling and abusing OxyContin . Intelligence has also shown that foreign diversion is another source of the OxyContin being sold and used illegally in the United States.