Concern Over "Pill Mills" Is Growing in Ohio
Jun 10, 2010
DEA recently placed Ohio’s Scioto County on a watch list of the 10 most-significant places in the United States for trafficking of medications. Scioto County Coroner Dr. Terry Johnson said the county ranks second in Ohio for unintentional prescription drug deaths. He said some in the medical profession set aside their morals in exchange for money. "These people are diverting their medicine because it's so profitable," Johnson said. The county has the largest concentration of pain clinics per capita of all of Ohio's counties. "It's legalized drug dealing," said Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini. "It's all about greed."
The cash-strapped department cannot combat the problem alone, the sheriff said. The DEA recently raided two Portsmouth pain clinics, one of them just two blocks away from the sheriff's office. Earlier this year, after Scioto County was declared a health epidemic, Ohio’s governor formed a prescription drug abuse task force. The task force is assessing the situation to see what can be done to deter pain clinics servicing illegitimate patients. Crystal Chamberlin recently lost her 30-year-old daughter, a professional nurse, to an overdose of Oxycontin and Xanax. "It's killing our kids, the pill mills, it's so easy for our kids to get them," she said.
Learn more: Prescription for Disaster: How Teens Abuse Medicine
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Ohio News Network