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Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, like so many communities throughout the country has experienced a
virtual explosion of the diversion and abuse of the prescription pain reliever
OxyContin. As District Attorney of Bucks County, I have witnessed first
hand the sudden influx of OxyContin and the corresponding devastating effects
that this drug has begun to have our community.
OxyContin is intended to
relieve the pain of cancer patients and others suffering from long-term
debilitating pain. Its potency and
time-release design make OxyContin more effective and desirable to these
patients. The popularity of the
drug for legitimate purposes is understandable and even compelling.
But it is this same potency that has become attractive to drug abusers.
This drug has become the drug of choice among an increasing number of
drug addicts who are drawn to the instantaneous “heroine –like” high the
pill produces. Drug abusers are
willing to risk death to experience the high the drug produces.
Sine January of 2000, Bucks County has experienced fourteen overdose
deaths involving OxyContin in combination with other controlled substances.
This drug is an extremely addictive drug and will, as with all addictive
substances, create new drug addicts if overly or improperly prescribed.
In addition to its popularity among drug-abusers, the high mark-up on the
streets makes OxyContin attractive to drug traffickers.
The retail cost of a 100-tablet prescription bottle of 40-milligram
tablets of OxyContin is $400.00. The
pills in that same prescription bottle, sold on the streets, are worth
$4,000.00.
The abuse of OxyContin has also
brought with it a new kind of drug dealer to our neighborhoods.
This drug is not manufactured in home laboratories like Methamphetamine
or smuggled across our boarders like Heroine and Cocaine.
This drug is produced by a legitimate pharmaceutical company, prescribed
by medical doctors and distributed by professional pharmacists.
These are the professionals that we, as lay people, have come to trust
and believe in. Recently, the
citizens of Bucks County have experienced two separate incidents that have left
the foundations of this trust badly shaken.
In March of this year, acting
in a cooperative effort with the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Mike Fisher,
we arrested a physician operating out of Bensalem Township, Bucks County, on
drug dealing, forgery and practicing without a license charges.
This “physician” is charged with having written over 1,200
prescriptions for OxyContin over a five-month period.
We recently charged the same “physician” with 1392 counts of
insurance fraud for fraudulently submitting claims for reimbursement from
Medicare and Blue Cross in the amount of $173,892.10. Despite the fact that this doctor’s license to practice
medicine had both expired and been suspended, large numbers of people were able
to obtain OxyContin by merely asking for a prescription. One prescription bottle with this doctor’s name on it was
found in the possession of an overdose victim in Philadelphia.
Following his arrest, the OxyContin overdoses in that area of
Philadelphia immediately ceased. Despite
the expired and suspended status of his license, this doctor was able to receive
reimbursement from both Medicare and Blue Cross in the amount of $107,702.00.
In April of 2001, in another
joint investigation with the Office of the Attorney General, a pharmacist was
arrested and charged with forging prescriptions the majority of which were for
OxyContin. Again, hundreds of these
illegal prescriptions were generated thereby allowing these illegal and deadly
drugs to make their way to the streets.
A third and very frightening
incident occurred on August 9, 2001 in Bristol Township, Bucks County.
On that date, a man armed with a knife, entered a pharmacy, pointed the
knife at the pharmacist’s throat and demanded that he turn over three bottles
of OxyContin. Fortunately, the
pharmacist was able to flee the store without injury while the armed robber
collected the drugs he sought.
Too often, as a society, we
think of drug abuse and addiction as somebody else’s problem, not ours.
Those of us in law enforcement know that nothing could be further from
the truth. These three incidents,
which occurred in Bucks County over the last six months, indicate the kind of
criminal activity OxyContin has created not only here but also on a national
level. But they do not demonstrate
the whole picture. Drug addicts by
definition must become criminals to support their habit.
The tremendous cost to support the addiction leads to a host of crimes
– theft, forgery, credit card fraud, robbery, burglary and murder.
Drug dealers engage in a host of crime beyond the sale of controlled
substances as they try to protect their territory.
The people of Bucks County and across the nation will suffer the impact
of the abuse of this drug not only as victims of crime but in the cost of
insurance and retail goods and the added expense to the criminal justice system
for investigation, prosecution, incarceration and treatment.
The reaction of law enforcement
must be swift and strong in identifying, arresting, prosecuting and convicting
those involved in the distribution and use of this dangerous drug.
My office and every law enforcement agency in Bucks County are committed
to utilize whatever resources are available to combat this killer.
But the criminal justice system alone cannot solve this problem.
It will require the cooperative effort of the pharmaceutical industry,
medical practitioners, pharmacists, the insurance industry and government to
fully regulate and control the distribution of this extremely dangerous drug.
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