BOOK NOOK: Recalling the bad old days of the prescription pill crisis in Ohio

Twenty years ago southern Ohio was in the grip of an epidemic of prescription pill abuse. Unscrupulous physicians associated with medical clinics known as “pill mills” flooded our region with painkillers, sedatives, and muscle relaxers. Many people suffered overdoses and died.

In his book “Prescription for Pain - How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the ‘Pill Mill Killer,” Philip Eil takes us to review the nightmares created by a doctor named Paui Volkman. Volkman initially dispensed his prescriptions in Portsmouth, a place so ravaged by prescription drug abuse it became known to some as the “Oxycontin Capitol of the World.”

It took years for the government to crack down on the pill mills, when they finally did some of those pill mill doctors received jail sentences. Volkman was possibly the most egregious offender of the lot and when he was charged with crimes he could have taken a plea deal but he refused to admit he did anything wrong.

Volkman is currently serving four life sentences in an Arizona prison. The author was a young journalist when he came upon Volkman’s story by chance. His father is a physician and former medical school classmate of Volkman’s. After Volkman’s pill prescribing was finally halted, Eil heard his father talking about Volkman’s indictment and pending trial.

His curiosity piqued, he reached out to Volkman to request interviews. This was his initial research for the project, listening to Volkman’s denials of wrongdoing and claims of innocence. He found Volkman to be persuasive and was almost convinced Volkman was getting a raw deal.

Then he dug into Volkman’s shocking past. Originally a pediatrician, he eventually became a roving physician, working brief stints at hospitals around the midwest. He lived in a luxurious apartment in Chicago. The Volkmans had views of Lake Michigan and an expensive lifestyle.

By the time Volkman got hired to dispense prescriptions in Portsmouth things were getting desperate. He had been sued for malpractice and had become uninsurable. The woman who hired him to work at her pain clinic in Portsmouth had no medical background whatsoever.

Volkman was writing so many prescriptions for swarms of people at the clinic with a reputation as the place to get painkillers that local pharmacists refused to fill them. That’s when they obtained permission to become a dispensary and started fulfilling prescriptions in-house.

They didn’t call their clients patients, they were “customers.” Some customers were succumbing to overdoses. Volkman left that pain clinic and briefly dispensed prescriptions out of a residence in Portsmouth. Neighbors complained. The police finally ran him out of town. By that time he had a crooked pharmacist in Columbus filling his prescriptions.

He wasn’t finished. He opened a clinic in Chillicothe, his last stop. Law enforcement finally shut down that operation. During his trial it was revealed at the height of his criminality Volkman was prescribing more Oxycontin than anybody else.

Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.

HOW TO GO

What: A book signing and talk with Philip Eil

When: From 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12

Where: The Clark County Public Library, 201 South Fountain Avenue in Springfield

For information: 937-328-6903