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Supporters of the “war on drugs,” say illicit narcotics destroy lives, endanger children and we need to keep up the fight whether we are making progress or not. Others contend that for the hundreds of billions of tax dollars spent in the effort to rid America of drugs and drug use, we have almost nothing to show for it except over-crowded prisons and unsustainable minimum mandatory sentencing policies that punish offenders at the bottom instead of the top. But there is one thing that both camps can agree on, at least in theory.
That is the fact that drugs like heroin, cocaine and ecstasy are now secondary drugs of choice for illicit users. Today’s drugs of choice are legal if you have a prescription. They are manufactured by multi-national corporations like Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson and their brand names are Vicodin and Oxycontin.
Health professionals and dishonest patients are diverting powerful and potentially addictive prescription drugs from legitimate users for sale on the biggest black market in the world. The trend is fueling a shift toward pharmaceuticals as drugs of choice, authorities say. The number of pharmacy thefts, robberies and burglaries are telling. Nationwide, 25 million doses of commonly abused drugs were reported stolen last year.
In California, where almost 34 million prescriptions for narcotics and other controlled substances were written in 2007, the drug diversion problem has caught the attention of state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. “Doctors and pharmacies can instantly check out if the patient before them is legitimate or an abuser,” Brown said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “We will be in a better position to control illegal diversion.”
Law enforcement officials say high-profile accidental overdoses, such as that of former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith and Australian actor Heath Ledger are symptomatic of abuse and misuse of prescription drugs. While the price of cocaine and heroin has remained relatively constant, street prices for addictive medications like Oxycontin are rising faster than gasoline. “Unlike illicit drug use, which shows a continuing downward trend, prescription drug abuse . . . has seen a continual rise through the 1990s and has remained stubbornly steady . . . during recent years,” Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told a congressional hearing in March.
Law enforcement officials cite a surge in the use of prescription drugs as street narcotics. “What we are seeing is that prescription drugs . . . are quickly becoming the drug of choice and abuse,” said Murrieta Police Lt. Dennis Vrooman. Drug diversion investigations can be complicated and take months. Several years ago, a multi-agency task force in Los Angeles looked at SNG Pharmacy after complaints of open drug dealing outside.
“We have video of people crushing pills and mixing them with cough syrup on the sidewalk,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Opferman told the Times. “It was a mill for street addicts.” In 2005, an undercover deputy encountered about 30 people inside calling out drug orders.
After writing his name, address, birth date and phone number on a piece of paper, the deputy said he bought an unlabeled bottle of Soma, a painkilling muscle relaxant. Investigators determined that the pharmacy had purchased several million doses of drugs over a two-year period but could not account for hundreds of thousands of them
The owner, Siamak Davoodi, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor dispensing of medication without the proper labeling or container. His board licenses were revoked in 2006 and he was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in fines to pay for investigative costs. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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