A little cash on the side. Yeah, right.

My visit to the cardiology clinic on Tuesday entailed a lot of waiting between various phases of the nuclear stress test, which meant I was stuck in the waiting room for long periods of time with a number of other people in the same situation. Near me sat a man and his wife. The man was taking the stress test, and his wife was creating stress by talking loudly to anyone who would listen to her.

At one point when I was the person seated closest to the woman (Kim had been there with me but had left for a few minutes to run an errand), someone on the TV news mentioned marijuana. That was all it took for the woman to begin telling me what a big problem drugs are in the parish where she lives.

She said that a recent drug bust in the parish prison "proved that the police must be in on it, because how else are those prisoners getting drugs?" As further evidence, she cited relatives of hers, saying, "Everyone in that family sells drugs," and adding, "I've called the cops on them more'n once, told 'em where to go, what time to go, and all that, and the cops never did nothin'."

In the next few minutes she told me how drug use had affected her immediate family, resulting in her son's current imprisonment. "I've spent so much money on him over the years you wouldn't believe it, but never again. I told him I won't spend another dime on him; I'll gamble my money away instead."

What do you do when someone you've never seen before in your life begins sharing personal information with you--loudly--in a public place? All I did was listen and try to nod or shake my head sympathetically as seemed appropriate to her most recent revelation. But in the end, just before the woman's husband returned and she changed the subject, I had to bite my tongue to keep from responding.

"It's all the Medicare people," she said in a disapproving tone of voice. "Those Medicare people can get all the drugs they want. Doctors just give 'em to 'em, as many as they want, and then they turn around and sell 'em. That's where all the drugs are coming from, those Medicare people. Someone needs to put a stop to it."

I'm a "Medicare person." It wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years to ask my doctor for extra pills so I'd have some to sell. It wouldn't even have occurred to me to share my personal business and opinions with a complete stranger in a doctor's waiting room. But that's just me. I'd rather spill my guts here.

So, are any of you readers making a killing in the prescription drug trade? Looks like I'm losing out again. I wonder how many other business opportunities I've blindly failed to recognize.