Prescription drug addiction
In 1989, Cindy McCain became addicted to Percocet and Vicodin, opioid painkillers, which she initially took to alleviate pain following two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs, and to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five affair.[38][39][39][40][41] The addiction progressed to where she was taking upwards of twenty pills a day,[15] and she resorted to having an AVMT physician write illegal prescriptions in the names of three AVMT employees without their knowledge.[38][42] In 1992, her parents staged an intervention to force her to get help;[22] she told her husband about her problem, attended a drug treatment facility, began outpatient sessions, and ended her three years of addiction.[39] Surgery in 1993 resolved her back pain.[39][41]
In January 1993, Tom Gosinski, an AVMT employee, who had discovered her illegal drug use, was terminated on budgetary grounds.[43] Subsequently, he tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration, and a federal investigation ensued.[38][43] McCain's defense team, led by John McCain's Keating Five lawyer John Dowd, secured an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office for McCain, a first-time offender, that avoided charges while requiring her to pay financial restitution, enroll in a diversion program and do community service.[38][10][43] Meanwhile, in early 1994 Gosinski filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against McCain, which he told her he would settle for $250,000.[38][43] In response, Dowd characterized this request as blackmail and requested that officials investigate Gosinski for extortion.[38][43] In the end, both Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped.[38][39]
Knowing that the DEA prosecutors were about to publicly disclose her past addiction, McCain preemptively revealed the story to reporters saying she was doing so willingly: "Although my conduct did not result in compromising any missions of AVMT, my actions were wrong, and I regret them."[38][39][10]
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