Couple made millions running crooked NYC pharmacies, flooding streets with $10M worth of oxycodone

[UglyGreed]

A husband and wife team of drug pushers ran crooked pharmacies in Brooklyn and Queens that flooded the streets with over 500,000 oxycodone pills worth over $10 million, authorities said Thursday.

Pharmacist Lilian Jakacki, 49, and her hubby, Marcin Jakacki, operated a pair of Chopin Chemists stores in Brooklyn and Queens that were so lucrative the couple bought a $2 million home in Greenwich, Conn., prosecutors said in a complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court. The scheme allegedly began in 2010 and ended this month. The bust broke up what Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called one of the largest operations doling out illegal prescription pain pills in the city.


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/couple-made-millions-running-nyc-pill-mills-prosecutors-article-1.2415980

Yet it seems chronic pain sufferers take most of the blame by people stating they sell their pills for profit

[KamaAina]

1. There are pharmacies like that in my old neighborhood around 145th and Broadway

I only found out after my dear childhood friend who had a serious addiction decided out of the blue to stop by one day. She later died in a prison cell near her grandma's place in Pa. I never did figure out a way to save her.

[UglyGreed]

2. So sorry to hear that

[Stuart G]

3. Thanks for posting..I am sure this is just the tip of the so called "iceberg"

Big money in prescription drugs. .

[UglyGreed]

4. N/P Yes and the people who pay the

price of this greed is those who need help with dealing with chronic pain and illness.

[closeupready]

5. How dumb can people be?

Not going to make any obvious jokes, but really, did it never occur to them that if getting rich was as easy as all that, everyone would be doing it?

[malaise]

6. Greedy stupid people always think they are smarter than

everyone else - until thy get caught...and they are so greedy that they don't know when to stop.

[Skittles]

12. the money becomes addictive, and they take more and more risks

until they get caught

[malaise]

13. And they get sloppy

[Tracyjo]

7. I have chronic pain

I would never sell my medication. Not enough money in the world.

[UglyGreed]

10. Only someone with chronic pain

would understand how absurd selling your pills would be. It's a shame people like these folks in the article make those of us with chronic pain suffer even more. Wish you the best with your health struggles

[Tracyjo]

11. Thanks for the hug

those who don't have problems like this, just don't understand. My best to you also.

[UglyGreed]

16. N/P

[Ghost in the Machine]

8. "Yet it seems chronic pain sufferers take most of the blame by people stating they sell their pills"

I am in pain management and depend** on oxycodone just to make it through the day and night, to be able to function.

I have seen it firsthand... people limping into the clinic with a cane, then running to their car with their prescription in one hand and phone to their ear in the other. I had a family member going to the same clinic that I was. I found out that he was selling his pills... and I promptly called and told them that they needed to call him in for a urine test and pill count, which they did, and got him kicked out.

I know several other people who sell their pills, and if I knew their doctor or clinic that they were going to, I'd turn them in, too!

Even if I was dead broke, like right now, I would NOT sell even ONE of MY pills to buy food or a pack of smokes. 3 reasons:

1- I have what we in our family call "The {insert my last name here} Luck", sort of like the "day late or dollar short" or "anything that *can* go wrong, *will* go wrong"...

2- Because of this "Luck", the first time I did try to sell any, I'd probably get caught... then you're facing drug trafficking charges AND Medicare Fraud charges... and

3- All you have to do is be *charged* with a crime that faces a sentence of 1 year or more, not even *convicted* yet, and they can stop your Disability payments! I'd lose everything I have. It's just not worth the risk to me. Period.

**Note: There is a BIG difference between "dependency" and "addiction". People *depend* on heart medications, diabetes medications, etc, etc. *Addiction* leads to "drug seeking behavior", where you HAVE to have a fix. I take my meds as prescribed. I've tried physical therapy, steroid therapy, and steroid nerve block injections in my back and the ONLY thing that has helped is opioid therapy.

Peace,

Ghost

[UglyGreed]

9. I stopped going to pain management

last year and it will be a year on November 8 that I stopped taking Oxycodone on a daily basis for six years. I did take one dose two seperate times since then because my pain was unbearable. Both times was at Disney World after my wife and I finally took our two children ages 13 and 16 there for the first time in their lives. Even with using a scooter for whole time there my pain levels skyrocketed so I had no choice but take the pills.

Now I just had gallbladder surgery last Sunday and was given morphine and oxycodone while in the hospital. I did not take anything when I got home. I still have many many pills leftover and I did not crave them nor sell them. The reason I wrote all this is you are totally correct in stating there is a BIG difference being dependent and being addicted and I believe being in pain may have a lot to do with it. I had a harder time quitting smoking twelve years ago than stopping my pain medication. I wish you the best with your chronic pain

[Ghost in the Machine]

14. I stopped going for about 8 months, but had to go back again because nothing else worked..

I was in for over 4 1/2 years. Started out on 6 oxy 30's per day for 2 1/2 years, then got pushed up to 2 40mg Oxymorphones (generic Opana) per day, with 2 oxy 15's for breakthrough pain for the last 2 years. When the doctor switched me, I told him that when they became ineffective, I was done, and that's what I did. I weaned myself down so I wouldn't go into withdrawals. I was doing good until I slipped in the mud one night, twisting my back and tearing 3 disks in the process. The pain was so bad that I was literally passing out from it.

After 3 days of this, with it getting worse each day, I finally went to the ER. The ER doctor wrote me a script for some oxys, and suggested that I go back to pain management. I have chronic pain from a work related accident that left me disabled, along with 2 major neck surgeries.

They have me on a much lower dose now, and I am able to function and get some relief.

Best of luck to you, too, my friend! Here's wishing you as many pain-free days as possible.

Peace to you and yours,

Ghost

[UglyGreed]

15. OMG sorry to hear about

the fall. Your problems sound similar to mine so I can relate. Wish you and your the best also and hang in there!

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. My own father, who KNEW what I had been through & knew that I was legitimately in pain, had never

had any *back* pains (though he had suffered 2 different times from hairline fractures in his neck), finally experienced a ruptured lumbar disc 6 years ago at the age of 71. I had gone over to check on him and he looked at me and said "son, I don't know HOW you have lived with pain like this for the past 6 years, it must be awful for you!"

Then he followed up with "All the years that I worked as a foreman, when guys came to work claiming they had a backache, I just thought that they were trying to be lazy and making excuses to slack off for a couple of days. I probably owe several people an apology because I wouldn't wish this pain on ANYONE".

No one who has never suffered from chronic pain really understands, or in some cases *believes*, what we go through on a daily basis... until it happens to them personally.

Thank you for the kind words, and you hang in there too, my friend...

Peace,

Ghost

[UglyGreed]

18. It only adds to the pain

When people call us liars, drug seekers and bums. I have always had great deal of pride doing things on my own and even to this day I will refuse to seek help even if I struggle to do things on my own. Many of my own family and neighbors and such have called me a fake and a liar even though I have had two lower back surgeries, my neck fused and suffer from Hydrocephalus. All that is left of my family is my wife and children now, all others have used my disability to slander, dismiss my suffering and state I'm using my wife and too lazy to work. Funny thing is for years I have told my wife to leave and try to enjoy the rest of her life since I have caused such a burden but she is stubborn, perhaps like her husband.

IMO This is the norm with those of us with back issues since many people do use this aliment to game the system. I'm not blind to this and understand there are people who do such things. This is why I get so offended when even online people call me a liar. I'm honest to a fault, even if my honesty causes me harm. Sorry for the rant and I hope your father recovers or at least does not need to suffer in vain.

[Ghost in the Machine]

19. That is why I never dismiss anyone who says they are in pain. Pain is different for everyone...

Some have a low threshold for it, and some, like me, have a high tolerance for pain. When *I* seek help, people KNOW that I am hurting! My father never thought that I was faking, he just didn't know how *bad* the pain could be, like on the days that I couldn't even get out of bed. He was at the first visit to the Neurosurgeon with me when the doctor told me "I don't know HOW or WHY you were able to walk into my office on your own today. Looking at your MRIs, and judging from the extent of your injuries, you *should* be a quadriplegic and in a wheelchair right now!"

On top of the 8 or 9 bulging or ruptured discs in my T-Spine & L-Spine, I have a cervical syrinx, a condition known as Syringomyelia, that extends from the T-2 through C-1 level. I also have major nerve damage so bad that some parts of my body are numb on the outside where I can't even feel anything touching me, but it hurts on the inside. I think that's the only thing that keeps me going. I have cut or bruised myself too many times to count, and never knew it until I saw it myself or someone else asked "why are you bleeding right there?" and I'm like "where??"

Best of luck to you, my friend, and keep your head held high. We have been through more than some people could ever comprehend and we are still here to talk about it. If you are ever having a bad day and feel that you need some cheering up, just shoot me a PM and I will do my best to do so.

The next time someone thinks you're faking or calls you a liar, just look them in the eye and say "I wish I could trade bodies with you for a week. I'd bet everything I have that you wouldn't last the whole week before you wanted your body back". I have done that a few times, and it shut them down in their tracks...

Peace,

Ghost