STATEWIDE (WGME) -- You go shopping for groceries, clothes, maybe even a new car, but for some Mainers looking for a high, they do their shopping for doctors as prescription drug abuse reaches epidemic levels in Maine.

In a special report, News 13 is exposing doctor shopping and asking "who's accountable.

Scott Randall, former addict: “Eighteen months ago, I should have been dead.” Scott Randal is sober today after 10 years of prescription pill addiction. “I was addicted to both alcohol and drugs.” He's alive to tell his survival story.

Deb Marcand's son is not. Deb says, “These are all prescribed medications. He was on 15 medications. 28 pills a day.”  Did his doctor know he had that many medications? Yes.

Like Marchand's son Christopher, Randall says he worked his doctors to get whatever drugs he wanted.
Randall: “I would start out on something, use it for two weeks then say oh this isn't good enough and I'd find out what the next best thing was and manipulate the doctor into getting what I wanted.”

It's called doctor shopping. Making up ailments or exaggerating a condition so addicts can get their hands on drugs for a high. Or sometimes the drugs end up sold on any given street corner for 30 or 40 dollars a pill.

There's a database designed to help cut down on prescription drug abuse in Maine. at least one doctor says it isn't working.

Dr. Alan Bean, occupational medicine: “Now we have this opportunity from the state of Maine database where we can look up a patient by their vital statistics and find out if they're getting prescriptions in other places.” Doctor Alan Bean says some doctors don't check it.

Bean: “It's laziness frankly. It's something that takes time out of your day.”

Maine Drug Enforcement director Roy Mickinney believes doctors are accountable for the prescription drug abuse epidemic in Maine.

Roy Mckinney, MDEA director: “Maybe they have to spend a little more time with that patient to really get to the issue and identify what it is. Not merely a quick prescription. I blame the doctor.”

Marchand says her son's doctor didn't take time to listen to her before her son's death. “The doctors refused to help because on October 28th 2009 I called him with my concerns. He never called me back.”

Four months later on Valentine's Day, Christopher died of an overdose.

Randall spent a decade using his physicians to get drugs. Now 18 months sober, he's trying to make amends for the pain he caused his family.

Randall: “I love them. I'm very sorry for all the damage that I did to the family.” He hopes shining a light on doctor shopping is just what the doctor ordered for recovery.

Doctor Bean, like Mckinney, says better listening is a good place to start. He also believes doctors should be required to check the prescription drug database when they see a patient. And his colleagues should never underestimate how manipulative a drug-addicted patient can be in order to get drugs.SPECIAL REPORT: Who's accountable for Maine's prescription drug problem