When Sam McCarty fell off of a ladder doing work at his parents’ house, he had never taken Percocet. But, after a trip to the emergency room and having surgery for a broken arm, his surgeon prescribed the powerful painkiller and instructed him to take it daily. His doctor continued prescribing refills for nearly two years.
After years of daily usage, McCarty was completely dependent on Oxycodone — the opioid found in Percocet. Cut off from his prescription, he began going into withdrawal and turned to buying Oxycontin on the streets.
“I was using five to six 80mg pills a day — snorting them,” he said.
McCarty’s usage had spiraled out of control. He made several efforts to quit. “I was raised in church. So, I knew it was wrong to be on drugs. I always fought with it,” he said.
After three years and several failed attempts to quit cold turkey, he decided to seek medical help for his opioid addiction. A doctor at a nearby clinic that specializes in treating substance use disorder prescribed McCarty Suboxone — a drug that curbs cravings and blocks opioid receptors in the brain, preventing recreational usage.
“Suboxone saved my life,” said McCarty, who explained that the medicine not only allowed him to avoid the withdrawal process that comes from quitting cold turkey, but it also took away his desire to use.
“Without the urges, I was able to get rid of any types of triggers,” he said.
Surviving America’s deadliest jail system
For seven years, McCarty was able to control his disorder. He passed the weekly drug screenings mandated by his physician and took his medicine. He felt free from the cycle of constantly buying and using opioids, but that freedom was short-lived.
In August of 2021, McCarty took an anti-anxiety medication recreationally. In an incoherent state, he began arguing with his wife about his ability to drive. Desperate for help, she called the police and McCarty was ultimately taken to Southern Regional Jail, outside of Beckley, where he would spend the next 45 days.
“When I got to jail, they told me I couldn’t have [Suboxone],” said McCarty. Instead of giving him his prescribed medicine, healthcare providers at Southern Regional Jail put him on a detox protocol to wean him off the drug he had relied on for years.
He began the months-long withdrawal process on his first day in jail. “Day 17 and 18, it started hurting deep down in my bones. I had this dull, throbbing pain. No energy; couldn’t eat. I went from 195 pounds down to 170,” he said.
Desperate for a way to stop the pain and constant nausea, McCarty turned to the readily available supply of drugs in the state’s regional jails. He purchased fentanyl — a powerful, synthetic opioid that is currently responsible for the majority of overdose deaths in America. And, despite watching a man overdose from this same drug in jail a week before, he snorted it.
“For the first time ever in my life I did fentanyl,” McCarty said. Until that point, he said he had never considered doing heroin or fentanyl – opting instead for prescription painkillers. In 45 days at Southern Regional Jail, he had gone from seven years of not using opioids to using fentanyl, the most dangerous drug on the market.
When McCarty was released, he said the trauma of being forced off Suboxone stuck with him. He refused to take it again. “After going through those withdrawals, it scared me. It was the most horrible I've ever felt in my life,” he said.
Read more at Dragline, Powered by ACLU-WV: W.Va. jails deny prescribed medication for substance use disorder