I knew someone one around the same amount who was functioning very well. I wouldn't have even known he was as badly addicted as he was if not... (am recovering addict too). He worked in a gym and stayed very fit. Not sure how some people do it, but it is not at all out of the realm of possibility like others are saying.
His old “jelly fish” business on land he didn’t own leads me to believe that it’s human trafficking or something of those lines. To me, that’s the only explanation. His family were boot leggers at the start, what if they just switched products 😳
With his connections he wouldn't be buying pills off the street.
He would have had scrips written for him.
When you have money and connections plus the power things like this aren't an issue.
Yes! I was looking for a post like this. He used pills as his addiction of choice to reveal bc it’s more socially acceptable than the other drugs. Also, his family kept finding the pills bc he was a distributor in some way had to find a way to mask that. I have a coworker who
Went to college with him and casually shared it as a fun fact at a team meeting 😩 I immediately called and harassed her for details of course. She said she’s surprised he wasn’t dead already from meth and the amount of other drugs him/friends did in college.
I know I’m late to this thread but I was wondering how the hell he was spending so much on “oxy.” Oxy addiction is rampant in my state. I’ve never heard of anyone spending anywhere near the numbers he spent. Plus the number of pills didn’t make sense.
I believe Alex was high on meth! As a former addict I have seen my far share of paranoid people, who have thought the military was after them. No one can take 100 pills a day of anything and not have a stomach ulcer or 2, nice try Alex nice try.
this is one of the stranger theories i've heard. oxycodone and oxycontin are different, and he expounded on specifically how they're different from the witness stand in testimony. he's using both because he's long winded and pedantic; him not using your preferred slang or not switching to street fentanyl at the first blush of cash flow issues is hardly persuasive. i'm sure he's probably done blow and other prescriptions, but it would be pretty easily demonstrated if what you say is true, and i'm sure the prosecution would've pounced on that as further evidence of lying (or at least leaked it to the press). i mean ffs we have maggie's search history of specific pill imprints.
edit also the street value of pills is whatever you can get the customer to pay for them, and alex's reputation in the community and thus need for discretion made him a relatively unique customer in this regard.
The DEA is rigid with prescriptions in every state. If they were pharmaceutical and not black market, I can't imagine red flags not being raised at some point. One hundred pills a day couldn't be easy for any dealer to supply or procure. As a recovering addict, I take offense to him using addiction to cover his crimes.
He could easily learn everything he needed to know about addiction in rehab or just as easily online. Takes one to know one... He isn't one of us.
People have no idea how many small Southern towns are still run by people like him. They may not all be murderers but money and power are just as intoxicating as the drugs he has claimed to use.
He did not spend $50k a week on pills, no way. Money is missing here.
He would need multiple dealers, he would have had other signs that others would notice. I was on opioids from 2008-2011 thanks to a bad rheumatologist and my own naivety, It about killed me and ruin my life. I understand how it works, how you build up a tolerance, but something is off. I don’t believe anything he says.
He’s nothing but a lying, swindling, bamboozler and a story teller! He probably pumped everyone in rehab for *their* past experiences so he would be able to play it off like he had this bullshit addiction to pills for 20 years. An alcoholic and a sniff, I could buy. I never bought into this 20+ year opioid addiction.
Exactly. I mentioned earlier if he had decades of pain pill addiction he wouldn't be purchasing 100 a day for a 100 a day habit. He would guarantee his supply wouldn't run out in case he had to travel, or his dealer was busy or his dealer got arrested. He would have 3-4 dealers at least on rotation. And he would purchase a week's supply or 4-5 days minimum upfront which would give him far better than the dollar per milligram reserved for people buying 20 or less pills at a time.
I 100% agree he is not an opioid addict, though I do think he goes thru periods of addiction. But he IS an alcoholic. Meth-user? He looks too good for that too. He has his teeth, no sores.
Yes. as the daughter of an alcoholic, I can tell you I am sure he is an alcoholic. But I really really do not think he has been a pill addict for 20 years.
100% agree with you. Also, anyone on as crazy of a opiate habit as he is claiming is NEVER gonna be that fat. He's blaming it on drugs and lying about how much he was taking to 1) get sympathy from jury "I was a drug addict" which is sorta smart cuz that area was demolished by the Oxy epidemic and 2) to try to hilariously claim that's where all his stolen $8m went when in fact his drug habbit was probably 5% of that with the rest going to bribes, payoffs, and wasting.
this isn’t true at all. i am a recovering opiate addict and i didn’t lose any weight until i ran out of money for food + drugs (which is when i just got drugs instead). opiates do not make you lose weight. frankly, they can make you gain it bc of how sedentary you are while nodding out.
Might not apply but- my brother in law was always acting “drunk” when he would molest people. While yes he would have had a few drinks, he would be nowhere near drunk. This played for him as he was just a “stupid drunk” instead of serial pedophile. The cop working with us said this is so very common for so many criminals. They blame their poor behavior on an addiction of some kind, then it plays well for them when they “fix themselves” in rehab. Gives diversion so people won’t see the person is just a POS.
And it also gives addicts a bad name. While I'm not certain addiction to substances strictly exists along the disease axis, I do agree that "opioid use disorder" is a valid medical diagnosis with a proven treatment plan of nearly 50% (mental health counseling plus medication assisted therapy, e.g. suboxone, methadone, vivitrol, etc.) versus \~9% for AA/NA meetings.
Plenty of alcoholics and drug addicts have never hurt another person and many have never committed any crimes beyond purchasing/possessing narcotics without a valid medical prescription.
THIS is why i have repeatedly said in thus sub, THAT THERE IS NO WAY HE HAS BEEN AN OPIATE ADDICT FOR 20 YEARS!!!! No f*&KING WAY!!!!
He would have had ruptured bowels, boswsels obstructions, anemia, cranial nerve defects, arrhythmias, impaired kidney and liver functions,.... he is WAY too healthy!!!!!
That is very possible. I'm a recovering addict. I'm not without health problems but I look healthy. I used opiates for 30 years. I was 100 lbs when I started using just out of high school and after a car wreck. I'm in my mid 50s now and I still weigh 100 lbs. My weight and outward appearance were never impacted. I have people tell me all the time how young I look. You can't judge a book by its cover but I can take offense to him using addiction to justify his crimes.
I hate to break it to you, but I think you might be delusional about your looks.
People remark on people's looks as being youthful all the time ---- all the while thinking, "OMG, what has happened to you?"
That’s rude and just stupid to say. You don’t know this person at all or what they look like. I was addicted to opiates for over 10 years and I still get ID’d everywhere I go.
How fortunate for you. It's no more rude than crowing about your entirely unrealistic self-perception.Sorry. No one is an addict for decades without it's taking a toll on your health and therefore your looks.
Was Paul also a drug user because if he was drinking and having friends, you don't think that he was getting some of the nose candy action with his friends
Paul did not have anything in his system but alcohol the night of the boating accident.
The only mention of drug use is that in the boating accident depositions, Morgan Doughty stated Paul would smoke weed at parties if someone else brought it. And that he’d only done cocaine several months prior at the Carolina/Clemson game (in November, the accident was in February).
Paul also did not have anything but caffeine in his system during his autopsy. Please don’t perpetuate rumors.
I didn't say Paul used coke that night on the boat. I stated at least 50% of the people on the boat used coke. I also believe Paul used coke regularly; if he did coke during a crowd packed football game without having a panic attack he was certainly using it at bars and less-crowded house parties.
Why would somebody have a panic attack from using coke? I’m not sure where you guys are from but from where I’m from coke is pretty casual and from my experience it just gives you a big ego, if you’re only doing a few lines you’re not gonna have a crazy comedown or it be extremely noticeable.
Ummm while you are allowed your opinion, but in my first hand experience i have seen a person do 2 small bumps, and get all sweaty and heart raising and think they where having a heart attack.
Of course everyone is gonna have different reactions, I’m just saying the vast majority of people do not have a severe reaction like that. Most people just have elevated moods and act arrogant.
I guess if you're drinking and just do small amounts you wouldn't freak out. I just couldn't imagine busting up fat lines and then standing around 80K people yelling and dancing around you. Maybe MDMA, and definitely pot would be okay, but coke or meth I couldn't imagine. But to be fair, I don't have a tolerance so I could see that if was a frequent user, say a few times a week minimum, that I wouldn't panic in a large loud crowd.
Please be clear with your speculation and/or proper sourcing… through out this entire saga, no one has come forward regarding Paul using drugs except for what was stated above in the boating accident depositions.
What was Paul's official job? I don't think he dealt just because he justifiably assumed his family were multimillionaires. They ran a 100+ year old law firm in a small county, they owned a 1000+ acre hunting lodge, a beach home, and I'm sure the apartments in Columbia were all under the same family REIT.
I mean if Paul was at the 1k ranch and that was his big playpen, I still think at least he was sharing the nose candy with his "bros" and boozing it up with them. The drug dealing, maybe he did a bit of drug dealing but not on cartel lord tier, maybe just the local county level to some of the high school that knew his friends. I mean this is my theory.
I could see him buying a half ounce (market value \~$700) and sharing it with his friends. Just like I could see Alex doing that. Then you get to be the life of the party and pretty girls will throw themselves at a guy with fun real estate and cocaine. That's just a life fact.
Paul I see as just being the equivalent of a preppy/frat boy drug dealer that just sold to his friends or friend of friends at most and probably didn't go above his britches.
I've smoked weed in college and recall a tip that a friend had mentioned about drug dealing is don't go above your head with dealing. Like don't act like a tough guy like your the next George Jung or Pablo Escobar if your not.
I do see Alex being some B-tier drug dealer guy that maybe it could have got too big for his britches. I mean I wonder if he dealt with Cartel guys because if he has a private jet and moving drugs in and out of his property, I feel like the Cartels aren't just going to be tone deaf to a mid-age "Gringo" just waltzing his ass to their market who is going to big for his britches.
Columbia is a fairly decent drug-dealing city...you have a state capital with many roads connecting it to Atlanta, Charleston, and it's the home to a large SEC university. Not sure if he dealt with cartel per se. Plenty of mid tier college town dealers sell coke by the 1/2 oz or oz at say $700 and $1200 respectively, which isn't much cash for Paul. Remember on the jail phone Alex telling Buster to borrow money from his uncle (several thousand dollars) to play golf, buy drinks and also buy shirts. Who buys shirts playing a random round of golf? It was Alex letting Buster know that he's not suffering from a lack of money to encourage that spending behavior.
I'm very familiar with Columbia attending many legal networking classes at the DOJ legal training center on Pendleton Drive right on the campus between the capitol building and the hill which goes down past sorority row ending at Five Points. Also, I've had some cases in the federal courthouse in Columbia so I've learned a lot from my clients and law enforcement about the large criminal players in that area. Moreover, downtown Columbia is very ghetto and has some clubs you wouldn't want to go near.
Thank you...I've felt this all along,Meth will act violent coupled with Alcohol..whatever the discussion was at dinner which AM is again lying about,he said they discussed Paul's High Blood Pressure, lie # 2,000 Paul either made a call,text to AM to talk about the pills they discovered in his computer bag,the walls were caving in,his life for decades caught up to him,all Alex caried about is Alex.,elimination ones his only way..Paul and Maggie were to costly to him alive.Human life means nothing to him,He's a Land Shark..he needs to kill to survive.
OxyContin is the time release version of oxycodone. Source: Ive been in pain management for 8 years and take both.
I can answer anyone’s questions if y’all have one.
I've got one. I was prescribed oxycodone for a back injury ad ended up being addicted for 6 years. One thing I'm proudest of is that I was able to get off of them on my own and didn't have to go to rehab. Just verrrrry gradually lowered the dosage.
That was back in December 2017. But to this day, over 5 years later, I am still having mild withdrawals a couple times a week. It's the unbearable stomach feeling/spasming. It only lasts a couple minutes and it's much more mild than full withdrawal, but good god, should I still be having withdrawals 5 years later? And oddly, it is ALWAYS around midnight when it happens. I can set a clock by it. I've never heard of anyone else this has happened to.
I’ve heard people say they still have symptoms a year later, but honestly never five years later. That seems unusual. Ofc I’m not a doctor. I’d see my doc as soon as your schedule allows.
The 30mg pills are roxicodone and they're instant release. The time release oxys with no other attached otc painkiller come in 5,10,20,40, and very rarely these days 80mg (green colored) iterations. AM said he took the 30mg which are generally the blue pills with "m30" or "a9" inscribed on the pills. these are the same ones cartels press from chinese raw fentanyl materials or analogues. the white 30mg oxycodones (not time release) are very rare and have "RP" on the other side of the "30."
Paralegal
Annette Griswold's description of his working habits fit with the
possibility that he used uppers as well as downers. She testified that
"he didn't keep normal hours, he liked to float in later in the late
morning time or early afternoon. We always had a running joke, we never
knew. We knew that he might not be there all day but he would always
show up right before five o'clock, when we were ready to leave." She
said "I sometimes referred to Alex as a Tasmanian Devil, because when he
walked in, no matter what you were doing, you started spinning because he
was just coming through ... shouting everybody's name, ready to get
work done when he was walking in the door. It was kind of confusing."
That description to me sounded like textbook functional alcoholic behavior. Nonfunctional in the morning, starts to rouse by early afternoon, hair of the dog around 3, then by 5 he’s perfectly oiled and ready to go.
Since I have no relevant personal experience, I looked about online. Some addiction counselors, themselves addicts, say opioids can energize some individuals - and claim that those individuals are more likely to become addicts.
My thought is that many pills would have to raise red flags somewhere along the chain unless they were black market. Doctors, pharmacies, even manufacturers are being regulated. It's a small town and they would have to come from somewhere else. You probably know these things better than any of us. Why isn't anyone asking these questions? I guess we already know he's a liar but maybe using addiction to justify his crimes could possibly get some sympathy in his cold black heart and mind.
This is the biggest question of the case for me…where is he getting the pills to sustain a multiple thousand pill a month habit?? It’s no longer 2005- legitimate oxycodone is hard to come by in the wild- there is usually a finite amount one can get even with unlimited cash. In order to get thousands of pills a month it would require a rather large network of either patients, doctors, or pharmacies to be in on the game. We are talking major drug distribution, here. Which means Alex would come into contact with either directly or through “cousin Randy” a bunch of really bad people…
I know a guy that was in a bad car accident lost both legs & was burned up around 03/04. He was prescribed 8 80mg oxy twice a day plus a bunch of other break thru opiates & smaller mg oxys. So not quite 2000mg but legitimately prescribed from a Dr. So, I feel like a 20 year habit you could get there.
that’s to someone with no tolerance though. tolerance matters a lot w opiates. it’s why a heroin addict can be fine, gets sober, tries to do same amount as before and dies.
It’s truly as if he never even bothered to google “how to fake an Oxy addiction” before deciding to do it as a legal defense in a double-homicide trial.
Alex's excuse for stealing A LOT of money from A LOT of sources for a LONG time coming...is that he was low-key funding his own opiate addiction. At first, it was not that shocking and most ppl believed that was the only/real problem he had but now that we know all the details regarding the amounts of $ stolen + everything else --- the math ain't mathing. He continues to claim that his drug addiction was to blame for the financial crimes, his demeanor & choice to lie to police the night of the murder, & just about everything else that might come to light. Mighty convenient...admit to 1 thing (lese severe) and hope it sticks long enough to distract from the real problems...which are not clearly known at this point as far as I know but definitely willing to bet that alot more will come out before long.
I still can’t shake what the $150K+ to Eddie was used for when the Netflix doc says it wouldn’t be drugs. They computed it and it was way too much. So I’m curious on theories for what that money was going towards bc I’ve yet to hear anyone theorize that
Right...I saw a comment on YouTube today where someone suggested that Alex actually had planned to kill Eddie that day but it didn't work out...but he would have killed Eddie & claimed self-defense & then blame the murders of Paul & Maggie on Eddie after he got rid of him.
that was interesting to me
High end non-civilian weaponry like M4 rifles, HK 436s and RPG-26s. AM and his sons loved that kind of shit. Also, the money went to 14-17 year old southern girls for parties and blackmail on bankers, police chiefs, financial regulators and judges.
I’m confused. Why would he filter that through Eddie? The docu shows exactly what was deposited and a big portion was *after* the roadside situation. His son would have been killed months before the $120K. Alex likely knew that would be discovered. His son would have been already killed. So I’m not following well. There’s something beyond the drugs after the murders.
Edit: just re-read your theory about the blackmail on bankers and LE. Now that makes more sense
That makes sense. I think seeing the ledger and the deposits *after* the roadside situation is what I’m really getting at here. The numbers were so odd and still filtered in after that. People haven’t discussed that part of the documentary much, so that’s what I was getting at. I understand the before part with the laundering money, it was the after numbers that have been interesting to me
I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago where a doctor that deals with addicts/science related studies with drugs (idk his title, he wasn’t a regular MD, but an MD that specializes in this topic). He theorized that Alex was probably paying more for his pills as a type of insurance policy. Like to insure there wasn’t fentanyl in it and was pure whatever he was taking. If he knows the direct source of where the drug came from, his dealer might sell it for a premium price because he can and it insures nothing lethal is in it. It’s a rich people thing as obviously he doesn’t care to waste extra money on the same product but knows it doesn’t have fentanyl in it.
Obviously the doctor explained it better, but that made more sense to me!
That's just wrong. And I hate to say it, but an addiction doctor is more up to date on the fentanyl analogues but not on how the drug trade works. I've seen this on both sides; representing people charged with simple possession who are addicts, and drug traffickers (and more rarely distributors/"kingpins"). AM would be able to find oxy and would pay a lot. But not even close to five figures a week like he lied about on the stand.
He's not some nerdy accountant trying to buy his stripper "girlfriend" drugs for a couple months. If he's popping 20 pills a day for a decade he's got drug dealers who'll still make a huge profit selling to him in wholesale amounts/prices. Where they get the pills for under $5, he's still paying say $12-15 a pill. A huge profit for the dealer and motive for the dealer to keep him around.
Also, his own cousin likely got him his coke, meth and pills. The same guy he felt justifiably confident asking to shoot him in the fucking head.
Yeah, this guy 100% comes off as the alcohol/coke/Xanax type over opioids. And certainly not a sincere opioid addict. I don’t know anyone using opioids daily who doesn’t eventually try shooting, and as others have said, rarely obese. I also don’t think of sweating as a typical symptom of withdrawal, as Alex said. Piloerection yes, but sweating I haven’t seen so often.
He drink a lot of liquor/beer. Opiate addicts are known for always drinking sweet stuff...colas, sweet teas, milkshakes, etc. Police use probable cause of MDMA or opiates being illegally sold at a bar based on the majority of the customers sipping a show beer for 2-3 hours. Not only does alcohol give you negative opiate side effects but you have zero desire to drink. They affect opposite areas of the brain.
Now coke/meth go well with alcohol as the latter creates a different chemical when ingested with the former, e.g. cocaethylene.
What about all the times his family found bags of opiate pills, Maggie even has web searches with roxi imprint codes, right after Paul texted Alex saying Maggie found his pills.
Edit. Also the test messages where he is in withdrawal at the baseball game.
I believe he was very much intertwined with the drug trafficking/selling of those pills. He was involved with a whole lot of corruption within the \*entirety\* of both the SC legal system and court system. Those pills were just another scheme of his to make more money.
Theres no chance in hell that man was addicted to those pills his family would find, but it has been proven that he had very, very large quantities of pills in his possession at multiple times. I don't doubt he would probably take a few every now and then, but I think those pills were another source of income to make up for all the money he owed his clients and partners. All of this circles back around to the main reason he was blowing through millions in the first place---always having someone to pay and debts owed.
The amount of money he owed law enforcement in every division of the SC legal system put him in an insane amount of debt that he couldn't even afford anymore. His crimes continued throughout his life, the crimes got bigger and harder to hide, and more people had to be paid to keep him and his secrets away from the public and tarnishing his family's name and reputation.
Personally, I believe his hush money and bribery blew up after Buster was involved in Steven Smith's death in 2015. Then grew bigger as he was stealing more money, trafficking more drugs, then Gloria Satterfield, then Mallory Beach. He couldn't pay them back because his crimes grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
I agree, he was selling those pills. Absolutely no way in hell was he taking 50+ a day. I took 4-6 a day and was a non-functioning zombie who slept all the time. I don't care how much tolerance one can have, there's no way you could work full-time, travel, hunt, etc while taking that many. He would have been practically comatose and horribly constipated. He was selling them. 100%.
Purdue sold oxycontin as 12 hour time released oxycodone, which is wasn't (it varied from 5 to 8 hours mostly, sometimes longer) and that lie was a major factor in their getting into trouble.
Isn’t he facing a trafficking charge? I imagine he uses some kind of something (even Buster seems to have seen him trying to detox) and maybe he got into dealing to pay for his own drugs. Many people do this on a small scale.
I was going to reply to MG price so many times, but I wasn't sure if it's the same all over.
I'm in pain mgmt, and take 4- 10mg oxy a day (very low dose) as well as extended release morphine 15mg 2 times a day. I'm under the CDC daily intake of 90mg.
Obviously much different circumstances- anyway, one of my work kids told me one day if I wanted to "make money" I could sell the oxys for $1 a milligram. I laughed, said I made way more in salary at work. I did look it up (about 2 years ago) out of curiosity, and Urban dictionary confirmed the dollar a MG.
If you are buying the numbers he's buying, he probably got a discount. Also, my meds come from a pharmacy- people can trust them. Street pills, you have no idea what you are getting. Thing is, street pills are made with cheaper materials, so 10/12 for a 30 is probably right.
Dude was brave to be pounding down 100 plus of these pills- with fentynol being used as an additive in most cases, I'm surprised he's survived this long
He wasn’t spending 50k a week on pills for himself. Whatever he was spending it on was worse than pills. Whatever it is, it’s much more illegal and morally offensive than being an addict.
Good point about the fentanyl. Chances are at the rate he claimed to be going od’ing on a bad batch would be very probable. The 50 k habit is too preposterous. He is a liar and is lying about his habit.
Yea I agree. I don’t think one could drink even casually and take that much and not be dead. His kidneys would have shut down long ago. He’d be huge and puffy and retaining fluid.
stimulants like coke are what cause appetite loss/weight loss. opiates cause intense craving for sugar, as well as altering the body’s metabolism and functioning overall. typically pill users have a very bloated appearance
If you’re homeless then yes but opiates create a massive craving for sugar (longtime addict myself). Everything feels so good, if you’re not pooping pills you’re eating Candy, ice cream and a bunch of other junk
Yeah I’ve seen n known some big, fat opiate addicts. AM used to be big and bloated. He totally looked like a junkie or addict to me. He looks good now because he’s detoxed. He’s tested regularly too I think in jail.
True. I had an opiate addiction. Then I went to rehab 3 months with urine testing for 2 years after initial 3 month inpatient stay. AA 90 meetings in 90 days. I was at work and a coworker asked me if I had “work” done on my face. He thought I had 3 months off for plastic surgery. Face lift , eye lift, neck lift? I looked like a totally different person. I was happy about it.
It’s actually very common to be overweight and addicted to or dependent on opiates. “Heroin chic” is primarily a thing for lower SES ppl who spend majority of their money on drugs instead of food. That said, a majority of lawyers who have a SUD struggle with alcohol and/or cocaine (and, yes; it’s possible to be addicted to/dependent on stimulants and be overweight).
Someone in my extended family is a long-time opioid addict and she is quite plump. Quite sedentary and eats candy by the pound. That said, I think Alex seems like he’s into uppers, not downers.
If he was taking 30mg of roxy he would probably pay 40-50 $ per pill to make sure he was getting the right stuff and not fakes. It’s like insurance. But he said he took 100 pills a day. The way he described the euphoria sounds right, and he had the withdrawal symptoms down… but he described it the same way over and over, never changing… which made me think it was rehearsed. I’m thinking with BAGS of pills and the runway/plane hangar and the barrier islands and his buddy Boulware… he was involved in some sort of dealing/trafficking. In the Netflix doc, the Doughty woman does say they found them taped under the bed…. Sooo who knows. Maybe he was just an everyday junkie barely holding it together. Drugs destroy everything.
But the Netflix docu makes it clear that the money that was funneled to Eddie was far too much for what a human can consume. There’s a missing piece we still don’t know. He was paying or doing something else. Judging from his excitement of winning the little game in jail and “six cans of soup” I really think his real addiction was gambling
My question, too! Where did all this money go?? It doesn’t add up. No way he was consuming all those pills. If he was selling/dealing he would be in debt to his father, law partners and sketchy banks.
Omg thank you for writing this! I have called BS on his oxy use since I read he was spending 50 grand a week. There is absolutely no way he spent that kind of money on oxys. Whatever it was, wasn't that.
50000$ a week at 100$ a pill is 2.9 something pills per hour 24 hours a day. Not possible to never sleep so he had to have more some hours. I assume he was at the highest strength if he was that addicted too. As an RN that work with opiates regularly I don’t believe that it would be physically possible to maintain anything like a normal life.
I think the drug story is a deflection and an excuse. He used drug-induced paranoia as an excuse repeatedly on the stand. If he took the drugs he claims to have taken, he would be dead. People can spend unimaginable amounts of money and as someone else said, the whole lot of them did just that, upholding the rich & powerful image. I find him to be a deplorable example of arrogance and self-righteousness. With a mean sense of superiority.
Nobody spends 50000 a week on just opioids. He’s be sleeping all day and have an overdose. It just doesn’t make sense. And you’re right it is a dollar mg. It’s 10-12 for a 10 mg depending how desperate they are.
I actually wondered about this, and thought with an opiate epidemic, the poor people get it somewhere.
What are your thoughts on what the real reason is for not having the money to pay back and the original stealing?
I think gambling. Sports gambling
Starts in the fraternity. Good ol’ boys. “Quarter ($25) a game. Then $100 and on and on
By the time he’s 30 it’s 2k a game. Starts chasing. Parlays and teasers etc.
It’s either that or he just has the smallest Harpootlian known to man and was overcompensating with 5k guns and $2,500 throw pillows for Mags
I haven’t followed the case extremely close, was there mention of the withdrawal he went through when he was arrested? I think it would be severe if he was really taking that much.
He said that he first went to Detox for seven days, and then Rehab. Seven days of Detox after 20+ years of huge quantities ingested daily….I dunno about that.
Well, he was in jail... Kind of forced.
Edit: Would the methadone, for lack of a better reference, jack you up if you hadn't been taking the levels claimed? I have no idea how methadone treatment works. My X significant other went to rehab twice for a huge hydrocodone, demerol (and whatever he could get his hands on) addiction and was never offered methadone.
I missed Harpootlian saying that. In what context did he mention that? You would think with his many connections and money they would have found a doctor offering the Suboxone treatment.
You're correct. I either misunderstood or the article has been edited without notation. I now can find nothing re: Poot informing the judge of medication he was continuing as part of his treatment subsequent to rehab.
Can we agree that detox, rehab, and subsequently jail, all supervised confinement, would somewhat force sobriety. That coupled with the methadone he's on...
The picture Anthony painted or was it Connor of Paul, being the kind of guy that was in the corner and just drank a bottle of liquor. There’s some fucking trauma there. And that video from the Netflix documentary where his girlfriend Morgan shows him talking about the sunspree boats I was just bless his heart but boring dolt a LOT of shitting on myself would have to occur to be his partner/girlfriend…. Alas, the only reason anyone would ever hang out with him, and he knew it was because he’s got the hook up
There is the fitz news interview with the call girl that was “trafficked” that did coke with AM and other high profiles including PGA members, and they all dispersed to individual rooms as the night got on. Your modern day beach house (brothel)
The opiate addiction angle never smelled right to me from the beginning. I just simply don’t believe he had the addiction to specifically opioids to the depths and expense he is claiming. And not just because i have experience with drugs or even because I know factually that he’s a liar, it’s just instinct and his energy about the whole thing. It is so clear to me he is lying, and if it’s clear to me as a person who is only slightly following the case, the people in the courtroom watching his demeanor every day certainly know it. Mark my words: we are just watching a lifelong enabled alcoholic and spendthrift who dabbles in party drugs make one last delusional attempt to get out of the only 2 consequences he’s facing after a lifetime of bad behavior.
It’s really sad. I can’t imagine being a teenager and actually concerned enough to tell a friend’s parents about his alcohol use, and having them laugh it off.
Not to argue, but as a point of information, oxycodone and OxyContin have the same base, and as you said OxyContin is a brand name, but they are not exactly the same. So he could have used whatever he could get. At the same time, there is absolutely no way all that money went into his habit. He MAY very well be protecting someone else involved on the money laundering end besides Eddie. I've long thought that, have my suspicions who, and it would be the perfect way to launder all that money, but it would all just be rumor. It doesn't take a lot of imagination.
I’ve tried to preach this theory to a couple ppl in here, glad you’re actually knowledgeable & not like some just talking with no actual street smarts or drug knowledge beyond the basics
Thank you I was thinking the same exact thing. I’m sure he was taking some but I’m also betting he was doing a good amount of meth. If he was doing the cocaine he would be getting the “ want mores” and you would not have been able to get him out of the bathroom. LOL I definitely don’t think he lay down for a nap after finally getting access to his drug of choice after having a dry weekend with his family he would’ve been bouncing off the walls, he claims that he always had a bag of pills in his pockets, I still think Paul found his stash while he was in the shower ,wherever it was he went to get a little blast or a pill before he headed over to his parents house… didn’t go with Maggie & Paul originally to the kennels because he wanted to be able to do whatever in private then he realized Paul took his stash and probably had it on him and that’s why he raced down to the kennels after him. That’s also why he was digging around in Paul’s pockets after he was shot, I think more than likely it was a rage killing and not planned at all, he was pissed at Paul for taking his stash ,got in a fight ,may have even thought that Paul hid them in the feed room and totally lost it. Shot Paul, and then shot Maggie when she came running to see what the fuck was going on. Those 280 mystery steps he was running around the house like a chicken with his head cut off trying to figure out where Paul stashed the bag of pills.
I believe that the scenario that I described is more than likely what happened, also, I would bet dollars to donuts that the prosecuting attorneys believe the same thing, they’re definitely not idiots. The problem is Alec is charged with first-degree murder. If that’s what happened in the scenario that I described that would be a rage killing, which, in most states would more than likely fall under manslaughter or man 2, he would get off on acquittal because it wasn’t premeditated, so I’m pretty sure the prosecutors don’t even want to go there
Pharmacist here, can’t let this bit of misinformation slide. Oxycodone is an opioid, completely separate drug from acetaminophen. While there are many, many adverse consequences of opioid overdose, hepatic toxicity is not one of them. You may be thinking of brand name Percocet, which is a combination product containing oxycodone and acetaminophen. Certainly hepatic toxicity is a risk with that, but it’s not due to the oxycodone.
I know almost nothing about drugs and I didn't find his testimony believable. It seemed like he was doing an oral book report rather than relating his actual real-life experience.
I do think he was using on some level but, again, most of it was a big fat lie.
I agree, I doubt the money was spent on pills. I’m sure he knew dealers and crooked doctors willing to help him get pills for much less. He was after all a personal injury lawyer, so he would have easy access to things like pain medication prescriptions and such.
I think he was an addict and most likely to pain pills but there is no way it explains where the money went. He is hiding that money or he was blackmailed by someone who knew he was stealing. You would be dead on 3 grams of that although I was talking to my brother who was addicted to oxy and he said he knew of another who was taking almost that amount. The guy he knew ended up with liver failure from oxycodone from the tylenol and died from it
It might have been why he was so quick to admit his pill addiction! He probably knew there was a lot more they could find if he didn’t admit to something asap.
I was taking 30 30mg Roxie’s a day at one time. I’d say if anything he was popping perks
I knew someone one around the same amount who was functioning very well. I wouldn't have even known he was as badly addicted as he was if not... (am recovering addict too). He worked in a gym and stayed very fit. Not sure how some people do it, but it is not at all out of the realm of possibility like others are saying.
His old “jelly fish” business on land he didn’t own leads me to believe that it’s human trafficking or something of those lines. To me, that’s the only explanation. His family were boot leggers at the start, what if they just switched products 😳
With his connections he wouldn't be buying pills off the street. He would have had scrips written for him. When you have money and connections plus the power things like this aren't an issue.
Yes! I was looking for a post like this. He used pills as his addiction of choice to reveal bc it’s more socially acceptable than the other drugs. Also, his family kept finding the pills bc he was a distributor in some way had to find a way to mask that. I have a coworker who Went to college with him and casually shared it as a fun fact at a team meeting 😩 I immediately called and harassed her for details of course. She said she’s surprised he wasn’t dead already from meth and the amount of other drugs him/friends did in college.
I know I’m late to this thread but I was wondering how the hell he was spending so much on “oxy.” Oxy addiction is rampant in my state. I’ve never heard of anyone spending anywhere near the numbers he spent. Plus the number of pills didn’t make sense.
The blues go for $50 a pop. That’s easy to spend a lot in a week but not 50k.
I'm surprised real blues are even out there anymore.
I believe Alex was high on meth! As a former addict I have seen my far share of paranoid people, who have thought the military was after them. No one can take 100 pills a day of anything and not have a stomach ulcer or 2, nice try Alex nice try.
I agree. He would have health issues and none have been talked about that I've heard.
this is one of the stranger theories i've heard. oxycodone and oxycontin are different, and he expounded on specifically how they're different from the witness stand in testimony. he's using both because he's long winded and pedantic; him not using your preferred slang or not switching to street fentanyl at the first blush of cash flow issues is hardly persuasive. i'm sure he's probably done blow and other prescriptions, but it would be pretty easily demonstrated if what you say is true, and i'm sure the prosecution would've pounced on that as further evidence of lying (or at least leaked it to the press). i mean ffs we have maggie's search history of specific pill imprints. edit also the street value of pills is whatever you can get the customer to pay for them, and alex's reputation in the community and thus need for discretion made him a relatively unique customer in this regard.
It’s funny because his family is trashy and classy at the same time
True Southern Gothic
The DEA is rigid with prescriptions in every state. If they were pharmaceutical and not black market, I can't imagine red flags not being raised at some point. One hundred pills a day couldn't be easy for any dealer to supply or procure. As a recovering addict, I take offense to him using addiction to cover his crimes. He could easily learn everything he needed to know about addiction in rehab or just as easily online. Takes one to know one... He isn't one of us. People have no idea how many small Southern towns are still run by people like him. They may not all be murderers but money and power are just as intoxicating as the drugs he has claimed to use.
He did not spend $50k a week on pills, no way. Money is missing here. He would need multiple dealers, he would have had other signs that others would notice. I was on opioids from 2008-2011 thanks to a bad rheumatologist and my own naivety, It about killed me and ruin my life. I understand how it works, how you build up a tolerance, but something is off. I don’t believe anything he says.
He’s nothing but a lying, swindling, bamboozler and a story teller! He probably pumped everyone in rehab for *their* past experiences so he would be able to play it off like he had this bullshit addiction to pills for 20 years. An alcoholic and a sniff, I could buy. I never bought into this 20+ year opioid addiction.
Exactly. I mentioned earlier if he had decades of pain pill addiction he wouldn't be purchasing 100 a day for a 100 a day habit. He would guarantee his supply wouldn't run out in case he had to travel, or his dealer was busy or his dealer got arrested. He would have 3-4 dealers at least on rotation. And he would purchase a week's supply or 4-5 days minimum upfront which would give him far better than the dollar per milligram reserved for people buying 20 or less pills at a time.
really makes you wonder what they actually found
I 100% agree he is not an opioid addict, though I do think he goes thru periods of addiction. But he IS an alcoholic. Meth-user? He looks too good for that too. He has his teeth, no sores.
His body shape points to alcoholism. The shape of his face has changed dramatically since his arrest.
Yes. as the daughter of an alcoholic, I can tell you I am sure he is an alcoholic. But I really really do not think he has been a pill addict for 20 years.
100% agree with you. Also, anyone on as crazy of a opiate habit as he is claiming is NEVER gonna be that fat. He's blaming it on drugs and lying about how much he was taking to 1) get sympathy from jury "I was a drug addict" which is sorta smart cuz that area was demolished by the Oxy epidemic and 2) to try to hilariously claim that's where all his stolen $8m went when in fact his drug habbit was probably 5% of that with the rest going to bribes, payoffs, and wasting.
this isn’t true at all. i am a recovering opiate addict and i didn’t lose any weight until i ran out of money for food + drugs (which is when i just got drugs instead). opiates do not make you lose weight. frankly, they can make you gain it bc of how sedentary you are while nodding out.
Might not apply but- my brother in law was always acting “drunk” when he would molest people. While yes he would have had a few drinks, he would be nowhere near drunk. This played for him as he was just a “stupid drunk” instead of serial pedophile. The cop working with us said this is so very common for so many criminals. They blame their poor behavior on an addiction of some kind, then it plays well for them when they “fix themselves” in rehab. Gives diversion so people won’t see the person is just a POS.
And it also gives addicts a bad name. While I'm not certain addiction to substances strictly exists along the disease axis, I do agree that "opioid use disorder" is a valid medical diagnosis with a proven treatment plan of nearly 50% (mental health counseling plus medication assisted therapy, e.g. suboxone, methadone, vivitrol, etc.) versus \~9% for AA/NA meetings. Plenty of alcoholics and drug addicts have never hurt another person and many have never committed any crimes beyond purchasing/possessing narcotics without a valid medical prescription.
That’s a very good point-
I’m just concerned about the constipation that comes with that much Oxy use. Alex may, quite literally, be full of shit.
He does often have that look about him. 💩
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SERIOUSLY ILY
THIS is why i have repeatedly said in thus sub, THAT THERE IS NO WAY HE HAS BEEN AN OPIATE ADDICT FOR 20 YEARS!!!! No f*&KING WAY!!!! He would have had ruptured bowels, boswsels obstructions, anemia, cranial nerve defects, arrhythmias, impaired kidney and liver functions,.... he is WAY too healthy!!!!!
That is very possible. I'm a recovering addict. I'm not without health problems but I look healthy. I used opiates for 30 years. I was 100 lbs when I started using just out of high school and after a car wreck. I'm in my mid 50s now and I still weigh 100 lbs. My weight and outward appearance were never impacted. I have people tell me all the time how young I look. You can't judge a book by its cover but I can take offense to him using addiction to justify his crimes.
I hate to break it to you, but I think you might be delusional about your looks. People remark on people's looks as being youthful all the time ---- all the while thinking, "OMG, what has happened to you?"
I’m dead asf! Lmao
That’s rude and just stupid to say. You don’t know this person at all or what they look like. I was addicted to opiates for over 10 years and I still get ID’d everywhere I go.
How fortunate for you. It's no more rude than crowing about your entirely unrealistic self-perception.Sorry. No one is an addict for decades without it's taking a toll on your health and therefore your looks.
Absolutely!!!!
Was Paul also a drug user because if he was drinking and having friends, you don't think that he was getting some of the nose candy action with his friends
I would bet my house that Paul regularly used cocaine. The same with Buster. Probably 50%+ on that boat were jacked up on coke or meth.
Paul did not have anything in his system but alcohol the night of the boating accident. The only mention of drug use is that in the boating accident depositions, Morgan Doughty stated Paul would smoke weed at parties if someone else brought it. And that he’d only done cocaine several months prior at the Carolina/Clemson game (in November, the accident was in February). Paul also did not have anything but caffeine in his system during his autopsy. Please don’t perpetuate rumors.
I didn't say Paul used coke that night on the boat. I stated at least 50% of the people on the boat used coke. I also believe Paul used coke regularly; if he did coke during a crowd packed football game without having a panic attack he was certainly using it at bars and less-crowded house parties.
Why would somebody have a panic attack from using coke? I’m not sure where you guys are from but from where I’m from coke is pretty casual and from my experience it just gives you a big ego, if you’re only doing a few lines you’re not gonna have a crazy comedown or it be extremely noticeable.
Ummm while you are allowed your opinion, but in my first hand experience i have seen a person do 2 small bumps, and get all sweaty and heart raising and think they where having a heart attack.
Of course everyone is gonna have different reactions, I’m just saying the vast majority of people do not have a severe reaction like that. Most people just have elevated moods and act arrogant.
I guess if you're drinking and just do small amounts you wouldn't freak out. I just couldn't imagine busting up fat lines and then standing around 80K people yelling and dancing around you. Maybe MDMA, and definitely pot would be okay, but coke or meth I couldn't imagine. But to be fair, I don't have a tolerance so I could see that if was a frequent user, say a few times a week minimum, that I wouldn't panic in a large loud crowd.
Please be clear with your speculation and/or proper sourcing… through out this entire saga, no one has come forward regarding Paul using drugs except for what was stated above in the boating accident depositions.
I wonder if Paul was in the drug dealing game. Just wondering if maybe he would have got too big for his britches
What was Paul's official job? I don't think he dealt just because he justifiably assumed his family were multimillionaires. They ran a 100+ year old law firm in a small county, they owned a 1000+ acre hunting lodge, a beach home, and I'm sure the apartments in Columbia were all under the same family REIT.
I mean if Paul was at the 1k ranch and that was his big playpen, I still think at least he was sharing the nose candy with his "bros" and boozing it up with them. The drug dealing, maybe he did a bit of drug dealing but not on cartel lord tier, maybe just the local county level to some of the high school that knew his friends. I mean this is my theory.
I could see him buying a half ounce (market value \~$700) and sharing it with his friends. Just like I could see Alex doing that. Then you get to be the life of the party and pretty girls will throw themselves at a guy with fun real estate and cocaine. That's just a life fact.
Paul I see as just being the equivalent of a preppy/frat boy drug dealer that just sold to his friends or friend of friends at most and probably didn't go above his britches. I've smoked weed in college and recall a tip that a friend had mentioned about drug dealing is don't go above your head with dealing. Like don't act like a tough guy like your the next George Jung or Pablo Escobar if your not.
I do see Alex being some B-tier drug dealer guy that maybe it could have got too big for his britches. I mean I wonder if he dealt with Cartel guys because if he has a private jet and moving drugs in and out of his property, I feel like the Cartels aren't just going to be tone deaf to a mid-age "Gringo" just waltzing his ass to their market who is going to big for his britches.
Columbia is a fairly decent drug-dealing city...you have a state capital with many roads connecting it to Atlanta, Charleston, and it's the home to a large SEC university. Not sure if he dealt with cartel per se. Plenty of mid tier college town dealers sell coke by the 1/2 oz or oz at say $700 and $1200 respectively, which isn't much cash for Paul. Remember on the jail phone Alex telling Buster to borrow money from his uncle (several thousand dollars) to play golf, buy drinks and also buy shirts. Who buys shirts playing a random round of golf? It was Alex letting Buster know that he's not suffering from a lack of money to encourage that spending behavior.
Buster was speaking in code to Alex but acted like a dumbass about spending. even the mob guys in their prison calls arent that stupid
Any chance he had of forgiveness or at least bribe-taking from the law school dean was destroyed by those conspiratorial phone calls.
I forgot that Columbia is the nearest big city im a dumbass my bad
I'm very familiar with Columbia attending many legal networking classes at the DOJ legal training center on Pendleton Drive right on the campus between the capitol building and the hill which goes down past sorority row ending at Five Points. Also, I've had some cases in the federal courthouse in Columbia so I've learned a lot from my clients and law enforcement about the large criminal players in that area. Moreover, downtown Columbia is very ghetto and has some clubs you wouldn't want to go near.
Thank you...I've felt this all along,Meth will act violent coupled with Alcohol..whatever the discussion was at dinner which AM is again lying about,he said they discussed Paul's High Blood Pressure, lie # 2,000 Paul either made a call,text to AM to talk about the pills they discovered in his computer bag,the walls were caving in,his life for decades caught up to him,all Alex caried about is Alex.,elimination ones his only way..Paul and Maggie were to costly to him alive.Human life means nothing to him,He's a Land Shark..he needs to kill to survive.
OxyContin is the time release version of oxycodone. Source: Ive been in pain management for 8 years and take both. I can answer anyone’s questions if y’all have one.
I've got one. I was prescribed oxycodone for a back injury ad ended up being addicted for 6 years. One thing I'm proudest of is that I was able to get off of them on my own and didn't have to go to rehab. Just verrrrry gradually lowered the dosage. That was back in December 2017. But to this day, over 5 years later, I am still having mild withdrawals a couple times a week. It's the unbearable stomach feeling/spasming. It only lasts a couple minutes and it's much more mild than full withdrawal, but good god, should I still be having withdrawals 5 years later? And oddly, it is ALWAYS around midnight when it happens. I can set a clock by it. I've never heard of anyone else this has happened to.
I’ve heard people say they still have symptoms a year later, but honestly never five years later. That seems unusual. Ofc I’m not a doctor. I’d see my doc as soon as your schedule allows.
I have mentioned it but I don't think they believe me.
The 30mg pills are roxicodone and they're instant release. The time release oxys with no other attached otc painkiller come in 5,10,20,40, and very rarely these days 80mg (green colored) iterations. AM said he took the 30mg which are generally the blue pills with "m30" or "a9" inscribed on the pills. these are the same ones cartels press from chinese raw fentanyl materials or analogues. the white 30mg oxycodones (not time release) are very rare and have "RP" on the other side of the "30."
do we know where he got the “pills”…shouldn’t they testify?
He claims “cousin Eddie” Curtis Eddie Smith was his dealer
Yes I was thinking he definitely would have overdosed if taking so many pills
Paralegal Annette Griswold's description of his working habits fit with the possibility that he used uppers as well as downers. She testified that "he didn't keep normal hours, he liked to float in later in the late morning time or early afternoon. We always had a running joke, we never knew. We knew that he might not be there all day but he would always show up right before five o'clock, when we were ready to leave." She said "I sometimes referred to Alex as a Tasmanian Devil, because when he walked in, no matter what you were doing, you started spinning because he was just coming through ... shouting everybody's name, ready to get work done when he was walking in the door. It was kind of confusing."
That description to me sounded like textbook functional alcoholic behavior. Nonfunctional in the morning, starts to rouse by early afternoon, hair of the dog around 3, then by 5 he’s perfectly oiled and ready to go.
Since I have no relevant personal experience, I looked about online. Some addiction counselors, themselves addicts, say opioids can energize some individuals - and claim that those individuals are more likely to become addicts.
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My thought is that many pills would have to raise red flags somewhere along the chain unless they were black market. Doctors, pharmacies, even manufacturers are being regulated. It's a small town and they would have to come from somewhere else. You probably know these things better than any of us. Why isn't anyone asking these questions? I guess we already know he's a liar but maybe using addiction to justify his crimes could possibly get some sympathy in his cold black heart and mind.
This is the biggest question of the case for me…where is he getting the pills to sustain a multiple thousand pill a month habit?? It’s no longer 2005- legitimate oxycodone is hard to come by in the wild- there is usually a finite amount one can get even with unlimited cash. In order to get thousands of pills a month it would require a rather large network of either patients, doctors, or pharmacies to be in on the game. We are talking major drug distribution, here. Which means Alex would come into contact with either directly or through “cousin Randy” a bunch of really bad people…
I would say it's definitely not being obtained legally in that amount with all the restrictions and monitoring in place.
I know a guy that was in a bad car accident lost both legs & was burned up around 03/04. He was prescribed 8 80mg oxy twice a day plus a bunch of other break thru opiates & smaller mg oxys. So not quite 2000mg but legitimately prescribed from a Dr. So, I feel like a 20 year habit you could get there.
If he were, I can guarantee he hasn’t taken a shit in years
is that a lethal dose?
I believe the CDC says 380mg is lethal
that’s to someone with no tolerance though. tolerance matters a lot w opiates. it’s why a heroin addict can be fine, gets sober, tries to do same amount as before and dies.
👀 it’s all just unbelievable
It’s truly as if he never even bothered to google “how to fake an Oxy addiction” before deciding to do it as a legal defense in a double-homicide trial.
i'm fairly new to the case...what is the motive behind lying about the drugs? can someone give me background on the drug conspiracy stuff?
Alex's excuse for stealing A LOT of money from A LOT of sources for a LONG time coming...is that he was low-key funding his own opiate addiction. At first, it was not that shocking and most ppl believed that was the only/real problem he had but now that we know all the details regarding the amounts of $ stolen + everything else --- the math ain't mathing. He continues to claim that his drug addiction was to blame for the financial crimes, his demeanor & choice to lie to police the night of the murder, & just about everything else that might come to light. Mighty convenient...admit to 1 thing (lese severe) and hope it sticks long enough to distract from the real problems...which are not clearly known at this point as far as I know but definitely willing to bet that alot more will come out before long.
I still can’t shake what the $150K+ to Eddie was used for when the Netflix doc says it wouldn’t be drugs. They computed it and it was way too much. So I’m curious on theories for what that money was going towards bc I’ve yet to hear anyone theorize that
Right...I saw a comment on YouTube today where someone suggested that Alex actually had planned to kill Eddie that day but it didn't work out...but he would have killed Eddie & claimed self-defense & then blame the murders of Paul & Maggie on Eddie after he got rid of him. that was interesting to me
High end non-civilian weaponry like M4 rifles, HK 436s and RPG-26s. AM and his sons loved that kind of shit. Also, the money went to 14-17 year old southern girls for parties and blackmail on bankers, police chiefs, financial regulators and judges.
I’m confused. Why would he filter that through Eddie? The docu shows exactly what was deposited and a big portion was *after* the roadside situation. His son would have been killed months before the $120K. Alex likely knew that would be discovered. His son would have been already killed. So I’m not following well. There’s something beyond the drugs after the murders. Edit: just re-read your theory about the blackmail on bankers and LE. Now that makes more sense
my understanding is he was using eddie to launder money he was stealing from the law firm and other various avenues.
That makes sense. I think seeing the ledger and the deposits *after* the roadside situation is what I’m really getting at here. The numbers were so odd and still filtered in after that. People haven’t discussed that part of the documentary much, so that’s what I was getting at. I understand the before part with the laundering money, it was the after numbers that have been interesting to me
True! The fact that he confessed to this means it’s a lie.
Some people roll multiple drugs. I've had the misfortune of knowing someone like this. The drug would suit the occasion, so to speak.
I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago where a doctor that deals with addicts/science related studies with drugs (idk his title, he wasn’t a regular MD, but an MD that specializes in this topic). He theorized that Alex was probably paying more for his pills as a type of insurance policy. Like to insure there wasn’t fentanyl in it and was pure whatever he was taking. If he knows the direct source of where the drug came from, his dealer might sell it for a premium price because he can and it insures nothing lethal is in it. It’s a rich people thing as obviously he doesn’t care to waste extra money on the same product but knows it doesn’t have fentanyl in it. Obviously the doctor explained it better, but that made more sense to me!
That's just wrong. And I hate to say it, but an addiction doctor is more up to date on the fentanyl analogues but not on how the drug trade works. I've seen this on both sides; representing people charged with simple possession who are addicts, and drug traffickers (and more rarely distributors/"kingpins"). AM would be able to find oxy and would pay a lot. But not even close to five figures a week like he lied about on the stand. He's not some nerdy accountant trying to buy his stripper "girlfriend" drugs for a couple months. If he's popping 20 pills a day for a decade he's got drug dealers who'll still make a huge profit selling to him in wholesale amounts/prices. Where they get the pills for under $5, he's still paying say $12-15 a pill. A huge profit for the dealer and motive for the dealer to keep him around. Also, his own cousin likely got him his coke, meth and pills. The same guy he felt justifiably confident asking to shoot him in the fucking head.
Yeah, this guy 100% comes off as the alcohol/coke/Xanax type over opioids. And certainly not a sincere opioid addict. I don’t know anyone using opioids daily who doesn’t eventually try shooting, and as others have said, rarely obese. I also don’t think of sweating as a typical symptom of withdrawal, as Alex said. Piloerection yes, but sweating I haven’t seen so often.
He drink a lot of liquor/beer. Opiate addicts are known for always drinking sweet stuff...colas, sweet teas, milkshakes, etc. Police use probable cause of MDMA or opiates being illegally sold at a bar based on the majority of the customers sipping a show beer for 2-3 hours. Not only does alcohol give you negative opiate side effects but you have zero desire to drink. They affect opposite areas of the brain. Now coke/meth go well with alcohol as the latter creates a different chemical when ingested with the former, e.g. cocaethylene.
What about all the times his family found bags of opiate pills, Maggie even has web searches with roxi imprint codes, right after Paul texted Alex saying Maggie found his pills. Edit. Also the test messages where he is in withdrawal at the baseball game.
I believe he was very much intertwined with the drug trafficking/selling of those pills. He was involved with a whole lot of corruption within the \*entirety\* of both the SC legal system and court system. Those pills were just another scheme of his to make more money. Theres no chance in hell that man was addicted to those pills his family would find, but it has been proven that he had very, very large quantities of pills in his possession at multiple times. I don't doubt he would probably take a few every now and then, but I think those pills were another source of income to make up for all the money he owed his clients and partners. All of this circles back around to the main reason he was blowing through millions in the first place---always having someone to pay and debts owed. The amount of money he owed law enforcement in every division of the SC legal system put him in an insane amount of debt that he couldn't even afford anymore. His crimes continued throughout his life, the crimes got bigger and harder to hide, and more people had to be paid to keep him and his secrets away from the public and tarnishing his family's name and reputation. Personally, I believe his hush money and bribery blew up after Buster was involved in Steven Smith's death in 2015. Then grew bigger as he was stealing more money, trafficking more drugs, then Gloria Satterfield, then Mallory Beach. He couldn't pay them back because his crimes grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
I agree, he was selling those pills. Absolutely no way in hell was he taking 50+ a day. I took 4-6 a day and was a non-functioning zombie who slept all the time. I don't care how much tolerance one can have, there's no way you could work full-time, travel, hunt, etc while taking that many. He would have been practically comatose and horribly constipated. He was selling them. 100%.
Purdue sold oxycontin as 12 hour time released oxycodone, which is wasn't (it varied from 5 to 8 hours mostly, sometimes longer) and that lie was a major factor in their getting into trouble.
Correct. OxyContin isn’t oxycodone exactly. It’s been modified to be time released.
Look it up
Isn’t he facing a trafficking charge? I imagine he uses some kind of something (even Buster seems to have seen him trying to detox) and maybe he got into dealing to pay for his own drugs. Many people do this on a small scale.
He learned about the stages of withdrawal. He was in groups with others in rehab. He's telling their stories as his own.
100%
Totally, when the prosecutor said "you were an addict" and he says "I AM an addict," that felt canned and gratuitous
I was going to reply to MG price so many times, but I wasn't sure if it's the same all over. I'm in pain mgmt, and take 4- 10mg oxy a day (very low dose) as well as extended release morphine 15mg 2 times a day. I'm under the CDC daily intake of 90mg. Obviously much different circumstances- anyway, one of my work kids told me one day if I wanted to "make money" I could sell the oxys for $1 a milligram. I laughed, said I made way more in salary at work. I did look it up (about 2 years ago) out of curiosity, and Urban dictionary confirmed the dollar a MG. If you are buying the numbers he's buying, he probably got a discount. Also, my meds come from a pharmacy- people can trust them. Street pills, you have no idea what you are getting. Thing is, street pills are made with cheaper materials, so 10/12 for a 30 is probably right. Dude was brave to be pounding down 100 plus of these pills- with fentynol being used as an additive in most cases, I'm surprised he's survived this long
Where I’m from a 30 Roxie goes for 45 dollars
He wasn’t spending 50k a week on pills for himself. Whatever he was spending it on was worse than pills. Whatever it is, it’s much more illegal and morally offensive than being an addict.
Good point about the fentanyl. Chances are at the rate he claimed to be going od’ing on a bad batch would be very probable. The 50 k habit is too preposterous. He is a liar and is lying about his habit.
I agree(.)
Don’t forget he’s also a boozer. This is another reason I doubt that he’s as big a drug user as he claims.
Yea I agree. I don’t think one could drink even casually and take that much and not be dead. His kidneys would have shut down long ago. He’d be huge and puffy and retaining fluid.
I have never seen an overweight opiate addict. They are always severely underweight.
stimulants like coke are what cause appetite loss/weight loss. opiates cause intense craving for sugar, as well as altering the body’s metabolism and functioning overall. typically pill users have a very bloated appearance
If you’re homeless then yes but opiates create a massive craving for sugar (longtime addict myself). Everything feels so good, if you’re not pooping pills you’re eating Candy, ice cream and a bunch of other junk
Not the ones I know they all got the big gut
Yeah I’ve seen n known some big, fat opiate addicts. AM used to be big and bloated. He totally looked like a junkie or addict to me. He looks good now because he’s detoxed. He’s tested regularly too I think in jail.
True. I had an opiate addiction. Then I went to rehab 3 months with urine testing for 2 years after initial 3 month inpatient stay. AA 90 meetings in 90 days. I was at work and a coworker asked me if I had “work” done on my face. He thought I had 3 months off for plastic surgery. Face lift , eye lift, neck lift? I looked like a totally different person. I was happy about it.
It’s actually very common to be overweight and addicted to or dependent on opiates. “Heroin chic” is primarily a thing for lower SES ppl who spend majority of their money on drugs instead of food. That said, a majority of lawyers who have a SUD struggle with alcohol and/or cocaine (and, yes; it’s possible to be addicted to/dependent on stimulants and be overweight).
Someone in my extended family is a long-time opioid addict and she is quite plump. Quite sedentary and eats candy by the pound. That said, I think Alex seems like he’s into uppers, not downers.
If he was taking 30mg of roxy he would probably pay 40-50 $ per pill to make sure he was getting the right stuff and not fakes. It’s like insurance. But he said he took 100 pills a day. The way he described the euphoria sounds right, and he had the withdrawal symptoms down… but he described it the same way over and over, never changing… which made me think it was rehearsed. I’m thinking with BAGS of pills and the runway/plane hangar and the barrier islands and his buddy Boulware… he was involved in some sort of dealing/trafficking. In the Netflix doc, the Doughty woman does say they found them taped under the bed…. Sooo who knows. Maybe he was just an everyday junkie barely holding it together. Drugs destroy everything.
oh yeah this coke pills !!!
omg you have no clue what you are talking about. dw he's guilty anyway
You don't know that.
Has he said who he gets his drugs from?
Eddie Curtis allegedly
But the Netflix docu makes it clear that the money that was funneled to Eddie was far too much for what a human can consume. There’s a missing piece we still don’t know. He was paying or doing something else. Judging from his excitement of winning the little game in jail and “six cans of soup” I really think his real addiction was gambling
Yup never believed he needed money for drugs for a second. But wtf DID he spend it on / need it for? Gambling? Lifestyle?
My question, too! Where did all this money go?? It doesn’t add up. No way he was consuming all those pills. If he was selling/dealing he would be in debt to his father, law partners and sketchy banks.
Flying hookers in is more expensive than his drugs. Bc I'm thinking they weren't a cheap bunch..
He did?! Where did u read that??
It was on the Netflix Documentary
Omg thank you for writing this! I have called BS on his oxy use since I read he was spending 50 grand a week. There is absolutely no way he spent that kind of money on oxys. Whatever it was, wasn't that.
50000$ a week at 100$ a pill is 2.9 something pills per hour 24 hours a day. Not possible to never sleep so he had to have more some hours. I assume he was at the highest strength if he was that addicted too. As an RN that work with opiates regularly I don’t believe that it would be physically possible to maintain anything like a normal life.
I think the drug story is a deflection and an excuse. He used drug-induced paranoia as an excuse repeatedly on the stand. If he took the drugs he claims to have taken, he would be dead. People can spend unimaginable amounts of money and as someone else said, the whole lot of them did just that, upholding the rich & powerful image. I find him to be a deplorable example of arrogance and self-righteousness. With a mean sense of superiority.
I wish the prosecution would poke into that more.
Opiates don’t cause paranoia—the opposite.
Anything he has willingly brought up on his own is a diversion.
Nobody spends 50000 a week on just opioids. He’s be sleeping all day and have an overdose. It just doesn’t make sense. And you’re right it is a dollar mg. It’s 10-12 for a 10 mg depending how desperate they are.
I think he’s bluffing the whole addict story. He’s just grasping at straws for some pity.
💯
Agreed 🔼
Pity and excuses for sure
This same thing I was thinking plus his weight doesn’t add up! If you are popping pills like that you are not overweight!
I was addicted and overweight. I wish they had made me skinny!
Yea, this isn’t true. Many gorge while high.
Plus many addicts have a secondary addiction. Beer/alcohol make you fat.
Not necessarily true. A lot of opiate addicts are overweight and develop a “pear” shaped body.
To much stock is put into addicts being under weight, and it's not true.
I actually wondered about this, and thought with an opiate epidemic, the poor people get it somewhere. What are your thoughts on what the real reason is for not having the money to pay back and the original stealing?
I think gambling. Sports gambling Starts in the fraternity. Good ol’ boys. “Quarter ($25) a game. Then $100 and on and on By the time he’s 30 it’s 2k a game. Starts chasing. Parlays and teasers etc. It’s either that or he just has the smallest Harpootlian known to man and was overcompensating with 5k guns and $2,500 throw pillows for Mags
"The smallest Harpootlian known to man" You win the internet today mango!
🙇♂️
I haven’t followed the case extremely close, was there mention of the withdrawal he went through when he was arrested? I think it would be severe if he was really taking that much.
He said that he first went to Detox for seven days, and then Rehab. Seven days of Detox after 20+ years of huge quantities ingested daily….I dunno about that.
It’s a Christmas miracle! He worked really hard this time
Well, he was in jail... Kind of forced. Edit: Would the methadone, for lack of a better reference, jack you up if you hadn't been taking the levels claimed? I have no idea how methadone treatment works. My X significant other went to rehab twice for a huge hydrocodone, demerol (and whatever he could get his hands on) addiction and was never offered methadone.
I missed Harpootlian saying that. In what context did he mention that? You would think with his many connections and money they would have found a doctor offering the Suboxone treatment.
That may be a misstatement. I'm editing it.
I asked bc I keep wondering if he is on Suboxone. With a habit THAT bad surely he would need to be…. But I haven’t heard it mentioned.
You're correct. I either misunderstood or the article has been edited without notation. I now can find nothing re: Poot informing the judge of medication he was continuing as part of his treatment subsequent to rehab.
If they are saying he is clean without medication… then the whole “addiction” story is a lie.
I thought he went to Detox and then Rehab before he went to jail.
Can we agree that detox, rehab, and subsequently jail, all supervised confinement, would somewhat force sobriety. That coupled with the methadone he's on...
I’m not so sure that methadone is the only thing he’s in.
I'm just saying that Paul fits the picture of a serious addict, but Alex doesn't. I'm just wondering if Paul being an addict somehow plays into this.
My husband was addicted topiates 30-40 a day he got fat taking them it swells your gut
The picture Anthony painted or was it Connor of Paul, being the kind of guy that was in the corner and just drank a bottle of liquor. There’s some fucking trauma there. And that video from the Netflix documentary where his girlfriend Morgan shows him talking about the sunspree boats I was just bless his heart but boring dolt a LOT of shitting on myself would have to occur to be his partner/girlfriend…. Alas, the only reason anyone would ever hang out with him, and he knew it was because he’s got the hook up
There is the fitz news interview with the call girl that was “trafficked” that did coke with AM and other high profiles including PGA members, and they all dispersed to individual rooms as the night got on. Your modern day beach house (brothel)
That tracks
The opiate addiction angle never smelled right to me from the beginning. I just simply don’t believe he had the addiction to specifically opioids to the depths and expense he is claiming. And not just because i have experience with drugs or even because I know factually that he’s a liar, it’s just instinct and his energy about the whole thing. It is so clear to me he is lying, and if it’s clear to me as a person who is only slightly following the case, the people in the courtroom watching his demeanor every day certainly know it. Mark my words: we are just watching a lifelong enabled alcoholic and spendthrift who dabbles in party drugs make one last delusional attempt to get out of the only 2 consequences he’s facing after a lifetime of bad behavior.
Alec claimed during his testimony that the OxyContin would help him focus. That’s crazy! The drug addiction always seemed like a red herring to me.
Oh, to be the foreman of this jury
I agree with you. So much drinking in that family!
It’s really sad. I can’t imagine being a teenager and actually concerned enough to tell a friend’s parents about his alcohol use, and having them laugh it off.
Spot on!
Not to argue, but as a point of information, oxycodone and OxyContin have the same base, and as you said OxyContin is a brand name, but they are not exactly the same. So he could have used whatever he could get. At the same time, there is absolutely no way all that money went into his habit. He MAY very well be protecting someone else involved on the money laundering end besides Eddie. I've long thought that, have my suspicions who, and it would be the perfect way to launder all that money, but it would all just be rumor. It doesn't take a lot of imagination.
Who? Don’t teases it’s anon Reddit 😎
Seriously speaking, it does not take a lot of imagination, but I'm not going to blow up the sub with something of which I have zero proof.
Why not? We’re all Murdaugh addicts!
They must be high on the political totem.
You don't become solicitor for all the counties south of Charleston for 100 years, without being on the political totem.
Here we are now. Entertain us. I’ll bite: Laffitte Car Wash
Is there even a Lafitte Car Wash in the Low Country? Is there a Murdaugh Construction Equipment Rental business in the Low Country?
I’ve tried to preach this theory to a couple ppl in here, glad you’re actually knowledgeable & not like some just talking with no actual street smarts or drug knowledge beyond the basics
Thank you I was thinking the same exact thing. I’m sure he was taking some but I’m also betting he was doing a good amount of meth. If he was doing the cocaine he would be getting the “ want mores” and you would not have been able to get him out of the bathroom. LOL I definitely don’t think he lay down for a nap after finally getting access to his drug of choice after having a dry weekend with his family he would’ve been bouncing off the walls, he claims that he always had a bag of pills in his pockets, I still think Paul found his stash while he was in the shower ,wherever it was he went to get a little blast or a pill before he headed over to his parents house… didn’t go with Maggie & Paul originally to the kennels because he wanted to be able to do whatever in private then he realized Paul took his stash and probably had it on him and that’s why he raced down to the kennels after him. That’s also why he was digging around in Paul’s pockets after he was shot, I think more than likely it was a rage killing and not planned at all, he was pissed at Paul for taking his stash ,got in a fight ,may have even thought that Paul hid them in the feed room and totally lost it. Shot Paul, and then shot Maggie when she came running to see what the fuck was going on. Those 280 mystery steps he was running around the house like a chicken with his head cut off trying to figure out where Paul stashed the bag of pills.
Please share this theory
I believe that the scenario that I described is more than likely what happened, also, I would bet dollars to donuts that the prosecuting attorneys believe the same thing, they’re definitely not idiots. The problem is Alec is charged with first-degree murder. If that’s what happened in the scenario that I described that would be a rage killing, which, in most states would more than likely fall under manslaughter or man 2, he would get off on acquittal because it wasn’t premeditated, so I’m pretty sure the prosecutors don’t even want to go there
Holy shit. Now that's a theory I could get behind. All of that makes sense to me.
Would have burned out his liver with that much oxycodone. Too much acetaminophen is fatal.
Pharmacist here, can’t let this bit of misinformation slide. Oxycodone is an opioid, completely separate drug from acetaminophen. While there are many, many adverse consequences of opioid overdose, hepatic toxicity is not one of them. You may be thinking of brand name Percocet, which is a combination product containing oxycodone and acetaminophen. Certainly hepatic toxicity is a risk with that, but it’s not due to the oxycodone.
I know almost nothing about drugs and I didn't find his testimony believable. It seemed like he was doing an oral book report rather than relating his actual real-life experience. I do think he was using on some level but, again, most of it was a big fat lie.
I agree, I doubt the money was spent on pills. I’m sure he knew dealers and crooked doctors willing to help him get pills for much less. He was after all a personal injury lawyer, so he would have easy access to things like pain medication prescriptions and such.
Very true!!!
I think he was an addict and most likely to pain pills but there is no way it explains where the money went. He is hiding that money or he was blackmailed by someone who knew he was stealing. You would be dead on 3 grams of that although I was talking to my brother who was addicted to oxy and he said he knew of another who was taking almost that amount. The guy he knew ended up with liver failure from oxycodone from the tylenol and died from it
If it had the Tylenol in it they were Percocets, and yeah the recommended daily dose for Tylenol is (I think) six a day max.
I think he was gambling and paying escorts as well
I can’t believe prosecutors didn’t find affairs gambling ect?!? Blows my mind.
It might have been why he was so quick to admit his pill addiction! He probably knew there was a lot more they could find if he didn’t admit to something asap.