Oxycontin Clinic in Lebanon

Reporting as it should be, from a blogger who’s powerfully addressed a critical issue in his own small town. No histrionics, just a compelling case, built solidly, brick by brick.

Meet the Marion County Line. Jim Higdon methodically, factually and clearly lays out the case: Lebanon has a pain pill factory that is drawing drug dealing from hundreds of miles away. Cash only, please.

But of course, drugs are not a real pressing issue in Kentucky, right?

Rand Paul should come to Lebanon:

The Lebanon Trade Center is like any other shopping center in Kentucky—there’s a cigarette outlet, a chiropractor, a Subway shop, a hair salon, and a cash-only pain clinic, where it appears that anybody with $200 can get a prescription for Oxycontin, according to multiple sources within the Lebanon medical community. On August 1, when Lebanon Medical Solutions opened its doors, Marion County joined one of Kentucky’s fastest growing industries—the pain pill pipeline.
“It’s craziness,” said Wanda Abell Meade, a Marion County native who now manages nine nursing homes in eastern Kentucky, southern Ohio and West Virginia, “Just craziness!”
Meade was alerted to the existence of Lebanon’s new pain clinic when a nurse who works for her showed her a quarter-page ad for Lebanon Medical Solutions in the July 28th edition of The Journal-Times, the newspaper for Grayson, Kentucky, which is 162 miles east of Lebanon; no ads have appeared in Lebanon’s local newspaper. “Specializing in complete pain management,” the ad said, “Walk-ins welcome. Now accepting new patients.”
Alarmed by what she saw, Meade asked a member of her nursing staff to call the pain clinic. The nurse was told that all one had to bring was an MRI less than two years old, $200 in cash, and a fax number for your pharmacist. What normal person carries around copies of their MRI? To Meade and her medical staff, this was a red flag.
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