These days, nearly everyone in Hazard has an OxyContin horror story to tell. In the last year, local officials say, the drug has swept through the small town, wrecking lives and destroying families. Precise statistics are hard to pin down, but the number of local addicts runs in the hundreds. Oxy abuse cuts across income and age lines. Teens meet for Oxy parties in the park.
Miners blow their paychecks to feed their addictions.
Even grandmothers peddle their prescriptions for quick cash. In February police rounded up more than 200 Oxy dealers in Hazard and surrounding counties, the largest drug bust in state history. In nearby Harlan, Judge Ron Johnson sentenced a woman to 10 years in prison for selling just four of the pills. Hazard isn't the only place struggling to quell the flames. Oxy has taken hold in other rural Appalachian states and in New England, places where it's tougher to get more familiar street drugs like heroin and crack.