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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Friday, Nov. 4, 2011 | 2 a.m.
J. Patrick Coolican
Prescription Drug Abuse
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They're legal, prescribed by a doctor and as close as mom and dad's medicine cabinet. And they're claiming lives at an alarming rate. Is Nevada doing all it can to monitor prescription drug abuse by doctor-shopping patients and over-prescribing professionals? Plus, church or cult? The Mormon religion is getting national attention in the Republican presidential race. Is faith fair game? We'll ask former Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury. He's Mormon, too!
Related story
- Vegas doc pleads not guilty in federal drug case (11-3-2011)
Not everyone was surprised by the indictment Thursday of Dr. Sebastian M. Paulin Jr. for selling prescription drugs to people who don’t need them. That’s because among painkiller addicts and recovering addicts in the Las Vegas Valley, Paulin was well known as an easy source of drugs.
The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden, charges the physician with selling large numbers of prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam (Xanax) out of his medical clinic, at 620 E. Twain, from March 2010 to August 2011. It also charges him with money laundering, alleging Paulin made or assisted in making 69 cash deposits totaling $689,291 into two bank accounts, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office.
I first heard of Paulin from a source about six weeks ago and was shown a photo of people lined up outside his clinic at 6 a.m., even though Paulin did not open the doors until much later in the day. I was told the people were likely addicts waiting to fix.
I then talked to a man who has been in recovery for a year. He offered details of the Paulin operation.
He said he went to the clinic every four months for prescriptions for 120 doses of a narcotic painkiller called Lortab, 90 of Xanax and 120 of Soma, a muscle relaxer. He said the doctor never asked him about symptoms that would require medication. He said he merely told Paulin what drugs he wanted.
He was given prescriptions for three months of refills. The visit cost $100. Cash.
He said Paulin accepted 15 walk-in customers before noon, plus appointments, and another 15 walk-ins after lunch, plus appointments. This might explain why people would line up outside the clinic so early in the morning.
My source says he visited two other clinics that were similarly solicitous of his needs.
Nevadans consume about twice the national average of several prescription painkillers, making us among the most narcotic-addled populations in the United States, according to a Sun analysis by my former colleagues Marshall Allen and Alex Richards.
Their investigation also found that more people in Clark County die of prescription narcotics overdoses than of overdoses of illicit drugs or from vehicle accidents. In 2006, Nevadans were the No. 1 users per capita of hydrocodone — better-known by the brand names Vicodin or Lortab — and that we consume so much Vicodin that it averages out to 48 pills per year for every man, woman and child.
This does not surprise me one bit. My husband was addicted to pain pills until I made him quit. His doctor AKA the legalized drug dealer was always hooking him up with pills. Thank God I filed bankruptcy and put this doctor on it. My husband has been pain pill free for 2 years. When I had a car accident I had a doctor push pills on me. I was told to take one everytime I was in pain but I knew better and didnt. Its like doctors out here want you to be addicted to pain pills.
I'm sure this contributes to the plethora of poor drivers in Vegas (and maybe some of the idiots who walk in front of cars). If they aren't drugged and/or drunk, they are on their cell.
STUPID story from a 3rd rate reporter.
120 days and 120 Lortab (1 a day)
120 days and 120 soma (1 a day)
MANY PEOPLE IN PAIN WILL NEED 6 TIMES THE LORTAB and double the Soma.
But never mind that, Vegas is much like the rest of the U.S.
they will tell you as a woman if you can abort
they will tell you as a gay that U cannot marry
ALWAYS wanting to shove their superiority down other citizens throats while babbling about freedom.
Why have Dr. decide when idiot busy bodies like this reporter and idiot comments can tell us what is right for us.
Must be a pleasant feeling to be superior to others and still stupid.
OMG he saw 50 patients in a day; SOUNDS ABUT AVERAGE but you know sooooo much more than others.
This is how we get IDIOT POLITICIANS. They PANDER to idiot self righteous Americans.
@Michael: 120 Lortabs + 120 Soma + 90 Xanax + 3 refills in a 4 months = 4 Lortabs and Soma (the combination of the two is famous for creating highs like heroin )per day, plus 3 Xanax per day to stop the shakes when they wore off.
Do the math with the refills in the equation.
Police officers have driven by that doctor's office for years (they didn't learn about it just 6 weeks ago). Why did it take the I.R.S. to enforce some laws?
Understood about the illlegetamate prescriptions that were being written. But as to myself I was a legetamate pain patient who suffers from herneiated disks in my back. And unfortunately I needed pain medication to improve my daily life. And what now do I do. These meds to have extreme withdrawal and now I'm cut off from my medication. I still had a refill and pharmacy won't fill it. They revoked dr. Paulins Dea #. So what do the legit patients do now. Drug treatment rehabilitation centers cost upwards of 20k. Who has that these days. The dea should pull files of people who really had pain issues and refer us somewhere. It's not a patients fault that the dr. Did illegal things