I learned something that I didn’t know or even think was that big a problem. Prescription drugs are big business for crooks. I’m talking about the prescription you take on a doctor’s orders. This officer from the Oklahoma Drug Control told Electric Coop directors that ordinary pain pills sell for $10 to $20 on the street.
Pharmacy robberies exceed bank robberies in Oklahoma. Teenagers are selling unused drugs out of their family medicine cabinets, which of course are illegal, and most people don’t realize they are gone.
He said methamphetamine production in the state was cut way back when home manufacturers could no longer get cold medicine. But then someone on the web found another way to make it in a gallon jug and it was on the web. He said before they can get a chemical on the law books, a new formula is made.
Today he said they make marijuana with chemicals then call it by a new name and sell it until they are caught. He said the sale of medical marijuana in Colorado and California is no help in controlling the sale in his state.
But the most disturbing thing he said is the people who take painkillers and became addicted are every day people you would not suspect. They could be a police officer, doctor, lawyer, teacher or anyone. They take pain pills for extreme pain, and then their brain demands them. However, they start at two pills a day. Soon this grows to three a day. Then that is not enough to do what their mind thinks they need. It isn’t pain any longer driving this need; it is a force that has control in your brain. These people are not criminals or scum living on the edge of society, they are addicted and no one knows it. They aren’t drunk and the drug works less and less on their body, but their need increases. Their needs can grow to 100 pills a day.
They find another doctor 100 miles away to prescribe a new prescription. But they must drive back and maybe go to another doctor for more. Today the state drug control agency goes through a checklist statewide looking for these people. They tell pharmacies to look out for these people and they double up on people violating the law. But until someone in authority catches them they won’t stop. Huge doses of these painkillers will stop your heart. The risk of that is high; he named the deaths of people like rock stars and others who overdosed.
If you have a family member or friend in this situation get them help.
Last year at collection points, like the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s offices statewide, collected unused medicine that doesn’t need to be in our streams, landfill or earth, they gathered 30,000 pounds of unused prescriptions. One was dated 1947. This is a no questions asked program.
If you plan to use any leftover drugs and intend to keep them, put them in a safe place like your gun safe. Otherwise please safely dispose of them – there is a strong illegal market for any drugs among young people hoping to get a high.
This problem exists all over the nation. You should be aware in your community. God bless you and your family.
Western novelist Dusty Richards and his wife Pat live on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. For more information about his books you can email Dusty by visiting ozarksfn.com and clicking on ‘Contact Us’ or call 1-866-532-1960.
