And though OxyContin’s initial converts in Maine were fishermen and loggers, not coal miners, the results were the same: People were “walking” prescriptions, or stealing prescriptions pads the moment a doctor turned his or her back. They were “shopping,” too—quietly soliciting concurrent prescriptions from multiple doctors. Selling prescribed pills, available for a pittance with an insurance or Medicaid card, was now seen as a viable way of paying your bills in a county where the unemployment rate hovered around 22 percent.
