Addicted: Prescription for Danger; Taliban Urges Pakistan to Reject U.S. Aid
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- four minutes past the hour. On our continuing series "Addicted," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. We're talking about prescription drugs. Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, the tragic death of these stars, of course, made headlines, but America's problem with prescription pill addiction goes much deeper and much further from the Hollywood spotlight. And it can be deadly not just for the addict abusing the prescription drugs, but for the doctor who comes between them and a fix. Our Carol Costello has the story from Washington this morning. Good morning, Carol.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. It is easy to sit back and shake your head when you hear stories about people addicted to prescription drugs. It's sad but it wouldn't touch my life. Well, that's not exactly true. Prescription drug abuse is so pervasive and so dangerous for doctors, he may refuse to write you a prescription no matter how much you're hurting.</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): Small town America with a big problem -- pill poppers.</s>DANIELLE SANDLIN, DAUGHTER OF DR. DENNIS SANDLIN: I didn't really realize how bad it was getting until after I'd gotten out of college.</s>COSTELLO: Danielle Sandlin grew up in Eastern Kentucky. Her father was a doctor, who, like other doctors in this part of the country, watched prescription drug abuse spiral out of control.</s>COSTELLO (on camera): In December, things came to a head here in Cornettsville, Kentucky, population 792.</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): In this clinic, Danielle's father, Dr. Dennis Sandlin, refused to prescribe painkillers for a man he suspected was an addict. Police say that man, John Combs, left angry and came back with a gun.</s>SANDLIN: My dad was writing in a chart at the nurse's station, and they -- someone heard my dad say, "You don't want to do this. I take care of a lot of elderly people." And he said, "Well, you didn't help me," and that's when he shot him.</s>COSTELLO: Dr. Sandlin's murder didn't come as a shock to Dr. David Greene.</s>DR. DAVID GREENE, FAMILY PRACTICE PHYSICIAN, BEREA, KENTUCKY: Any other phone calls?</s>COSTELLO: He works at a Family Practice clinic in Berea. Addicts often come to his clinic to shop for doctors. They use every trick in the book to get him to prescribe powerful pain medication like OxyContin. It can get ugly.</s>COSTELLO (on camera): So have you had people come in and -- and scream at you?</s>GREENE: Yes. Yes.</s>COSTELLO: Physically push you or touch you?</s>GREENE: Oh, I've had them -- I have less of a problem because I'm male and I'm taller. So -- but, one of the things we have to do in our office, because I'm the only male doctor, is I'm sort of on call for situations like that that involved anybody else, and I'll deal with them.</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): But some doctors do refuse to deal with it. They no longer write prescriptions for pain medication, for anyone, regardless of need. Detectives in Louisville can understand that. They arrest two or three suspects a day who routinely call in fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacists.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, this is a forged prescription that you went and picked up, not just once, a bunch of times. Do you know who's calling these in? I know?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it you? Claiming to be in this instance --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't in the beginning, but, yes.</s>COSTELLO: It's become an old, tired story.</s>DETECTIVE STEVE WATTS (ph): That's actually her at the pharmacy.</s>COSTELLO: Detective Steve Watts (ph) is dedicated to fighting just one kind of drug crime -- illegal prescription drug use. He's looking at surveillance tape of a woman who allegedly used a doctor's name to call in a prescription for Xanax.</s>WATTS: There she is, with the same distinctive bag, her Wal-Mart bag, walking out.</s>COSTELLO: We rode along with Detective Watts.</s>WATTS: We're almost here.</s>COSTELLO: It wasn't long before she appeared, along with her father and that purse.</s>WATTS: If I can make this her worst day of her life so that tomorrow she will seek treatment, then I've won.</s>COSTELLO: Back in Cornettsville, there are no winners. Dr. Sandlin's alleged killer has yet to face trial. He says he's not guilty.</s>SANDLIN: He has to see what he's done. He has to look at my family and know what he did, took somebody's life. It's the lives of these patients affect community. It -- you know, it's everybody.</s>COSTELLO: It is. Danielle is working with a number of groups to make it safer for doctors to practice medicine. Dr. Greene is working too. His clinic has informed every pharmacists in Berea, Kentucky they're no longer calling in prescriptions. Of course, Kiran, the biggest problem for doctors is trying to figure out who's really in pain. Many times, the only way to find out is to ask, "Are you in pain?" and -- and as we now know, patients will lie to get their hands on those pills.</s>CHETRY: Yes. And they talked about, you know, other solutions, you know, computerizing the records a little bit more, you know, just -- it's -- it's a little bit ironic, when you talk about this abuse, a lot of people say it's really bad in Florida as well with these -- with these pill mills, as they call it, which could be changing as well because of legislation.</s>COSTELLO: I hope so. But it's been a long time coming. And -- and, you know, in the meantime, doctors aren't prescribing medication for pain, and that is not a good thing for any of us.</s>CHETRY: Yes, and especially for people who really need it. Carol, thanks so much.</s>ROBERTS: It's crossing the half hour now. It's time for this morning's top stories. Investigators in Alaska converging on the scene of a deadly plane crash that killed former senator Ted Stevens and four other passengers. They're trying to figure out why the plane went down Monday afternoon near the Bering Sea. Four others survived the crash, including former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe and his teenaged son.</s>CHETRY: The JetBlue flight attendant who grabbed a couple of beers and slid down the escape chute is now out on bail. Steven Slater, facing felony charges, may be out of a job, but he's become a hero to workers across the country. JetBlue says that Slater has been suspended pending an investigation.</s>ROBERTS: And tropical storm warnings have forced BP crews to suspend drilling that relief well in the Gulf when they were, oh-so- close to getting it done. But federal officials have re-opened more than 5,000 square miles of the coast of the waters off the Florida Panhandle for commercial and recreational fishing. No oil has been seen there for the month now. Officials say they will continue testing fish that are caught in that area.</s>CHETRY: Well, the worst flooding in Pakistan's history is now moving south. So far, more than 1,300 people have been killed in this devastating flooding. But officials say there will likely be many more victims.</s>ROBERTS: The United Nations special envoy is calling this the biggest disaster that Pakistan has ever faced and says the country will need billions of dollars to recover. Our Reza Sayah has been tracking the story since the floods first started. He's in Islamabad for us live this morning. And, you know, Reza, just amazing scenes and tragic scenes of destruction and still so much suffering going on.</s>REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think the international community, John, is starting to understand the scope of this disaster. This is day two of the floods and the affected areas seem to grow by the day. These floods, of course, can create a host of other problems. Among them are landslides. Officials are telling CNN that a deadly landslide taking place in northern Pakistan, 44 people killed in that landslide. More than 50 people missing. Also, reports of severe food shortage in that area. In the meantime, international aid continues to come in. The U.S. is contributing another $25 million, in addition to the $35 million that they had already pledged. The U.S. also chipping in with a number of military helicopters, donating prefabricated bridges, water filtration systems, and 90,000 pounds of foods. Also later today in New York City, the U.N. is set to announce another $400 million in aid. So, the relief work, John and Kiran, seems to be picking up some momentum, but there's a lot more work left to be done here.</s>CHETRY: And we also understand that the Taliban is urging the Pakistani government not to accept aid from the United States? What's the latest on that?</s>SAYAH: Yes, that's right. Remember, many of these regions -- especially northwest Pakistan -- that were ravaged by these floods, are regions that were plagued, and in some cases, still plagued, by the Taliban. The U.S. is doing</s>CHETRY: A bit of an irony there. Reza Sayah for us this morning -- thanks.</s>ROBERTS: Well, a couple of things that we've seen over the last couple of days. First, there was flight attendant Steven Slater who quit his job in -- shall we say -- spectacular fashion. Then there was the woman who drove up to the drive-through of McDonald's trying to order McNuggets at 6:00 in the morning and didn't like the answer that she was getting from the attendant. Why do people snap? We'll find out coming up next. Thirty-four minutes after the hour.