The amount of prescription drugs being used and abused in Ohio is staggering. Attorney General Mike Dewine says they come from rogue doctors and so-called pill mills, frequented by addicts who doctor shop to get their drug of choice.
“Because of these pill mills, Scioto County pumps out approximately 35 million oxycodine and hydrocodone pills a year. That averages out to approximately 460 pills for each resident of the county.”
And the stories that result are tragic and horrible – An elderly Jackson County woman was strangled to death by an oxycontin addict in a murder-for-hire plot. An 11 year old Montgomery County girl overdosed on morphine and oxycontin. And in Adams County four kids were orphaned after both their parents overdosed on prescription drugs – just a few of many.
“28-thousand residents - 23 overdose deaths. That means approximately 1 in every 1,200 people are dying because of prescription drug abuse in Adams County.”
Adams County prosecutor Aaron Haslam is leaving that position to head up the prescription drug abuse arm of Attorney General Mike Dewine’s office. Dewine says he’ll add two more assistant attorneys general to help local officials with case preparation and prosecutions. And he says he’ll put money into regional training for local cops and deputies, and use the investigative staff at the state’s crime lab to help them target bad doctors, pill mills and other parts of the problem.
“These are not easy, and let’s be very, very candid about it. But we’re going to do what it takes to make these cases, and if there are doctors out there who are doing bad things – and there are a few – we’re going to go after them.”
Dewine says the big money they make can be as addicting as the drugs they sell. The prescription drug problem has galvanized community activists, many of whom have heartbreaking personal stories of family members and friends lost to drug abuse and crime. Courtney Rose of Lucasville is a recovering drug abuser, and she tells the story of a close friend’s addict daughter who last year was shot execution style over a few pills.
“We’ve lost more people due to drug-related deaths of their own prescriptions than we’ve lost in the Iraq war. Just in Ohio. And that’s amazing because if it was another country or someone else that was killing our people, we’d be at war. But it’s our own doctors and it’s our own prescriptions.”
Former teacher Frank Thompson of Portsmouth has led protests and started a Facebook campaign to make people aware of the prescription drug abuse problem. He thinks this approach will help, but also says that individual attitudes on drugs need to change.
“We’re a poverty stricken area, we’re a depressed area. Appalachia, by history, you can really tell is an area that, starting with moonshine and going through marijuana and now into this Rx drug problem, it’s been used to addiction. It’s an easy way to make money.”
Dewine adds that treatment and education are important tools in fighting the battle – but they have to be handled by others while he handles the law enforcement angle.
