Comments: Pennsylvania Drug Sweep Nets Alleged Seroquel Dealers
Yes, Seroquel is becoming something of a street drug.
You posted an excellent article on this, Philip, a while back.
You mentioned the case of the prison system in California which banned Seroquel [and Wellbutrin] because prisoners were using them to get "high".
Here is that article again:
http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=3260
Paragraph five reads: "Corrections officials throughout the country have long suspected that some inmates were either using the pills to get loaded, or "cheeking" them in order to later sell them to other prisoners to chop up and snort. Seroquel is an anti-psychotic that produces a hypnotic effect, and Wellbutrin is an antidepressant some liken to speed."
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12079107
Santa Clara County jails cut off prescription-drug pipeline
By Tracey Kaplan
Mercury News
Posted: 04/06/2009 12:01:00 AM PDT
Inmates desperate to get high still rely on an old standard pruno a potent prison wine concocted from hoarded fruit and ketchup using the water in cell toilet bowls. Street drugs also regularly get smuggled past guards by wily visitors.
But the latest way to get stoned behind bars has been Seroquel and Wellbutrin, expensive psychotropic drugs that inmates obtain by pretending to be schizophrenic or depressed. Santa Clara County's tab last year for the two drugs: $614,000 at a time when the county is facing a $220 million deficit.
Posted by Rosie at April 24, 2009 06:17 AM
So what, roughly, is the street value of Seroquel? In the community clinic where I work, it's given out like candy. All a patient has to do is say they "do really well" on 300, or 600, or 900, whatever, and they're given a 1-month script with 5 refills.
(All for the cost of a $1.00 co-pay... Medi-Cal takes care of the rest. My tax dollars at work.)
Posted by Steve at April 25, 2009 07:27 AM
Ha ha ha...I've always wondered about who on earth would want to buy this stuff. I've been lucky enough to have a great Dr wo took me from 600mg of seroquel down to a more livable 150mg. Why anyone would want to walk around (or more likely, sleep soundly) in a stupor from this stuff is beyond me. Maybe due to the fact that everyone I know that takes it or has taken it, complains about it. I especially enjoy that lovely hangover effect it has on me, making me feel like crap for three hours after I awake.
What is even worse, for me anyway, is how my completely paranoid SZA self is going to be even more paranoid, thinking that everyone is now going to think I'm selling seroquel, especially since this happened about 30 miles from me..
UGH! lol
Posted by Chris at April 25, 2009 06:58 PM
As a psychologist in a county jail I get lots and lots (and LOTS) of requests for "Qwell." We have had at least two recent instances of abuse. In one, a female inmate was smuggling it in from her work release. She was crushing it, putting it on paper and passing it between two dorms. In the other, a male inmate "cheeked" a number of 200mg tables and swapped them with his bunkemate. The latter took four at once and was all but comatose for three days. Lots of meth crack users report that it brings them back down after binges. But the street value is the real draw. We employ it in the jail with trepidation and the dispensing officers are required to do a mouth sweep. But still, abuses continue. Says something. Not good.
Posted by The Dark Jay at April 27, 2009 08:14 AM
Ashley Thomas Morgan, 21, with no known address, was charged with criminal use of a communication facility, sale of non-proprietary drug, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and two counts of criminal conspiracy. He was sent to county prison under $50,000 bail.
"He and another person allegedly twice sold Seroquel, a medication normally used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, to an undercover officer in February at Route 873 and Chestnut Street in Slatington. He and the other person also allegedly sold cocaine to the undercover officer in February at Main and Walnut streets."
Posted by sean at May 9, 2009 12:26 AM