An active drug user at the time, whose drug of choice was heroin, when I learned that Gabapentin was not an opioid that could neither get me high nor mask a drug-screen urinalysis (UA) in the event that I was dirty (If I was prescribed morphine or Tylenol 3, for example, either drug would test positive on a UA as Opiate/Morphine, as does heroin), I wasn’t interested in taking it. Therefore, later that evening when the nurse dropped off my prescription, I simply waited for her to leave then I flushed them down the commode.
Months went by and I was temporarily released into population only to return again three weeks, and all the while I never thought twice about Gabapentin. Then one night, out of the blue, the tray-slot on our cell-door dropped open and a nurse tossed me a bottle of pills, one-hundred-and-twenty 600-milligrams of Gabapentin to be exact. Noticing that the label on the bottle said “for pain use,” and that the side-effects included slurred speech and drossiness, my cell-mate Kenny decided that they must get you high and we should take some.
Initially, I was totally against it. I am not in the habit of taking pills that I knew nothing about, and all I knew about Gabapentin was that they were a new formulary drug being used throughout the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and that the doctors were prescribing them as some sort of cure-all, a drug that helped those with chronic pain, headaches, depression and much, much more. But after Kenny took five of them, drank a cup of coffee and sat around a while, I noticed that he was visibly fucked up, looked like he was feeling great and I decided to give them a whirl. I was instantly hooked.
When I was released back into general population, I turned some of my friends on to Gabapentin so that they, too, could enjoy this “funky high,” one in which mimics the effects of a stimulant, an opiate or a hallucinogenic, depending on the amount of pills one consume, food intake, the amount of time that the drug is in a person system, and coffee – you gotta take them with coffee to “get there.” In no time, word spread around the prison like wildfire ” that those pills that medical is handing out for everything” can actually get you high. In about a 30 day period, a bottle of 600-milligram Gabapentin (120 pills) on the black market skyrocketed from $5 a bottle to $50 and they didn’t stop there. Furthermore, because the pharmacy was so relaxed about refilling prescriptions, I could refill my 30-day prescription twice a week.
But in truth, I actually knew nothing about the drug.
Gabapentin, I would later learn, is the generic-brand for Neurontin, an anti-seizure medication originally manufactured by Parke-Davis that came under much scrutiny after reports surfaced that company executives were engaging in “off-label marketing practices.” Specifically, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neurotin as a treatment for epileptic seizures only, however, in an effort to fatten company profits, Parke-Davis devised a systematic strategy to promote Neurontin for unapproved uses, uses such as chronic pain, general anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and even hiccups. Eventually, Pfizer purchased Parke-Davis, the patent for Neurotin expired, Gabapentin was born, and the generic drug found its way onto the BOP’s pharmacology formulary where it was prescribed for every condition under the sun.
Over the course of a year, Gabapentin abuse inside of USP Leavenworth and some other federal prisons reached epidemic portions. If you were a drug user of any kind, and you were at Leavenworth between 2000 and 2002, you either used or abused Gabapentin. Most commonly, the number of pills that got you there was eight – eight 600-milligram pills in one pop. Guys were also mixing them with alcohol, mixing them with muscle relaxers, and some of us did them with heroin. We knew that it wouldn’t last, and we weren’t wrong.