PORTLAND — Maine's U.S. attorney announced Wednesday a renewed cooperative effort aimed at cracking down on crimes related to the abuse of opiate-based prescription drugs, a scourge in which Maine ranks No. 1 in the country.
Thomas Delahanty II said at a news conference at his office that local, state and federal law enforcement have teamed up to combat the problem that has triggered robberies and burglaries of Maine pharmacies.
The number of pharmacy robberies and burglaries in this state shot up five-fold from 2009 through 2010. OxyContin appears to be the drug of choice. There were more than 20 armed robberies of drugstores in Maine involving the highly-sought prescription drugs. The total value of the drugs taken was roughly $100,000.
Abusers also get the drugs through false and forged prescriptions and lie to doctors in an effort to get extra supplies. Some take too many legally prescribed pills and others rely on friends or family members for painkillers to help ease a backache or overcome sleeplessness, Delahanty said.
In a five-year period ending in 2002, there were about 75 drug-related deaths per year in Maine. During the following five-year period, ending in 2007, 132 people in Maine died taking the drugs. In 2009, there were 179 deaths in Maine due to overdoses.
"These are staggering numbers that can't be ignored," Delahanty said.
One of the strategies aimed at addressing these statistics is the so-called prescription drug take-back program. In September, 96 local, county and state law enforcement agencies throughout the state cooperated with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to set up 121 collection sites where people could take their unused medications for safe disposal.
Those efforts yielded tons of pills that were incinerated.
Earlier coordinated efforts between state and federal justice agencies had them working with pharmacies, doctors, organizations and various associations to better monitor prescriptions to identify fraud and abuse, Delahanty said.
Resulting changes included development of electronic prescribing concepts, requiring more positive identification, participation in a prescription-monitoring program and continued collaboration among state and federal law enforcement related to robberies and prescription fraud, he said. Maine's Legislature recently passed a state law requiring pharmacies to install surveillance video cameras, he said.
Lewiston police Chief Michael Bussiere said Wednesday that he's met with Delahanty to discuss the problem and possible solutions. Stepped-up efforts are needed by law enforcement, as well as state and federal prosecutors, Bussiere said.
Delahanty said his office is prepared to continue working with district attorneys and the Maine Attorney General's Office.
Maine's newly sworn Attorney General William Schneider attended Wednesday's news conference. Having recently left the U.S. Attorney's Office, Schneider said he expects to work closely with the federal agency to develop cooperative strategies.
Maine was recently identified as ranking highest among states for abuse of prescription drugs.
Although no one has explained why populations in rural states appear more likely to experience the problem than metropolitan states, Schneider said it might have something to do with the established pipelines for illegal drugs, such as heroin and crack, which skirt states with smaller urban populations.
Prescription drugs can be found as readily in rural states as in those with large population centers at pharmacies, nursing homes and other places with elderly or infirm residents, he said.
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why
is it that a medicial marijuanna dispensary can lose it lincense if thier product is found on the streets but pharmacies arent held to the same standard?
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Did the earlier articles about this not state Maine led the nation in TREATMENT of prescription pills? There is a difference between ADDICTION rates and TREATMENT rates. You cannot quantify addiction rates, so they study treatment rates which may be skewed due to availability of treatment facilities.
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There are many reasons why there is such a drug problem, but here are a few of them:
1. Unemployment. When one is unemployed and struggling, one will try to escape the terrible reality that is all around you. Drugs provide an escape from that, if only briefly. Boredom, lack of opportunities and just the sheer inability to make progress in one's life can also lead to drug abuse.
2. The scope of effective law enforcement is limited. Maine is such large state that many drug pushers can do their work without ever being detected for many months. There's too few people doing drug enforcement and too many users or dealers to catch.
3. Doctors, before they were put on notice by the government, were very busily handing out prescriptions for these drugs not caring if they led to an addiction problem. Now that there's tracking of prescriptions, that might slow the rate down.
4. Addiction to drugs is only one addiction. There is a huge alcoholism problem in this state which has not been as heavily monitored, and yet we accept alcohol as a legal drug without so much fanfare. The intake of Allen's Coffee Brandy in this state is staggering, but we don't seem to be trying to track that down and limit it. It's acceptable to society, but it goes hand-in-hand with drug abuse.
So to tackle the problem of drug abuse we must also attack the underlying causes of it. Creation of jobs, enabling people to be better-educated, and outlets for personal growth would definitely be on the right track.
One other note-pharmacies have been installing video cameras in all stores long before the State legislature took notice of the robberies. It is now a requirement from the Board of Pharmacy, and the DEA as well as a corporate instruction to have video monitoring of all drug stores.
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1) research shows that unemployment is about 6% responsible for those entering prison. anti social attitudes accounts for 22% anti social peers accounts for 18% substance abuse is 8%.
2) Effective enforcement is a myth. drugs are in prison and there is abundant enforcement. even if we treated every US citizen like an inmate giving them a full patdown every time they entered or left their home we would still have a drug problem.
3)the fact that doctors are more reluctant to hand out prescriptions is the very reason more people are resorting to robbery. no supply.
4)nobody is holding up riteaid for coffee brandy, why? because they can purchase it legally.
in short the problem with drugs really stems from its illegal status. creating an unconrtollable black market. before moving to prison work i was a caseworker for at risk juveniles. kids would be doing illegal drugs because thats what they could get thier hands on. the store clerk wouldnt sell them alcohol or tobacco but the street dealer would. therefore we as a society have more controll over the substances that are legal then those that arent.
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