The fast-acting narcotic lollipop Actiq is FDA-approved for treating cancer pain, and cancer pain only. Patients are warned not to ingest more than 120 doses per month. Ed McAteer, however, does not have cancer, and in an average month he may suck on as many as 300 of the potent raspberry-flavored pops, a dosage so high and constant that its sugar content has corroded away all his teeth. "Actiq is the best thing I've ever tried," he says. Anyone who didn't know him might assume he was abusing the drug, and that his only prescription should be for rehab.
展开▼
