Mike Riggs on How a Single Oxycontin Pill Nearly Ruined One Man's Life

Over the last several years, media outlets have reported hundreds of horror stories about Florida's prescription drug epidemic. News consumers have been treated to stories about crooked doctors, shady pharmacists, and pill-popping addicts with violent tendencies and bad parenting skills. But as is so often the case with drug war coverage, there's a hell of a lot more to the story than that. 

Reason recently interviewed someone you aren't likely to hear about in mainstream coverage of the prescription pill epidemic. In 2006, Jason was pulled over for speeding in Indian River County, Florida. His car was searched, and Jason was found to be in possession of a single Oxycontin pill. 

Six years later, writes Mike Riggs, Jason has still not recovered—financially or emotionally—from what the state of Florida did to punish him.