ANOTHER SIDE OF DRUG WAR

Prescription Fraud Costly For Society

The term "war on drugs" evokes images of scruffy lowlifes on dark
street corners selling crack cocaine, heroin or marijuana, and drug
task forces periodically sweeping neighborhoods to get rid of them.

But there is another, less-publicized battlefield in the same war
that also destroys families, claims lives and costs billions of
dollars annually: prescription medication fraud.

It's a crime committed by many people who have come to depend on
drugs to feed an addiction to legal pills.

"Many of them are law-abiding citizens who wouldn't commit a crime,
but they're driven to a desperate act by an addiction," said Lt.
Larry Thompson, head of the narcotics and vice squad in the Clay
County Sheriff's Office.

Some offenders steal prescription pads from medical offices and forge
doctors' signatures. Some telephone pharmacies claiming to be a
physician or an assistant requesting drugs for a patient. Some simply
break into a pharmacy and loot the drug cabinets.

"Doctor-hopping is probably the biggest problem," said Thompson,
referring to patients who often go to dozens of doctors getting a
prescription from each one.

Opiate-based drugs such as Lortab, Valium, Xanax, Lorocet, Percocet
and Vicadin are high on the list of pills commonly sought by people
who lie, cheat or steal to get their fix. Another drug gaining in
popularity among addicts is Oxycontin, a pain medication often
prescribed for cancer patients but in the wrong hands "is killing
people all over the country," Thompson said.

It's not just the addicts and their families who suffer. Society is
victimized as well.

"We all pay in increased insurance costs," Thompson said. "Not
everybody knows somebody who's addicted to heroin or crack cocaine,
but just about everybody knows somebody who's been addicted to
prescribed medication."

Another social cost is increased burglaries and thefts.

A man broke into the Walgreen drug store at 1320 Blanding Blvd. in
June and fled with an undisclosed quantity of Oxycontin. A
22-year-old woman was arrested in May after she tried to rob a
Walgreen at 42 Blanding Blvd. of drugs.

During 1999 and 2000, the sheriff's office investigated 26 cases of
prescription drug fraud and made 16 arrests in Clay County. Since
October, 45 cases have been investigated and 22 arrests made.

To crack down on the problem, the sheriff's office has assigned an
investigator full time to the cases. Also, the county initiated a
drug court a few months ago to keep offenders out of jail but under
close supervision while they go through a one-year program that
involves counseling, frequent drug testing and regular court
appearances.

Detective Theresa Murray, the chief prescription drug fraud
investigator, agreed that doctor-hopping is a major problem. She said
she recently received a notice from an insurance company about an
individual who had gone to about 80 physicians in Northeast Florida
over 30 months to obtain controlled substances.

"That's a clear-cut case of fraud," Thompson said. Investigating that
kind of case, however, takes a lot of time because physicians and
insurance companies don't have a central computer system to tell if
an individual has been to other doctors or pharmacies.

"I have to go to each individual pharmacy," Murray said. "Hand in
hand, we can make a difference. Pharmacists are my front line of
defense. They're my eyes and ears."

The sheriff's office has asked pharmacists to require photo
identification from everyone with a prescription, keep doctors'
signatures on file to compare with signatures on prescriptions, call
physicians to verify prescriptions, securely dispose of all paperwork
containing patient information, and call police if they think someone
has submitted a phony prescription.

One pharmacy victimized about a dozen times this year is Walgreen
drug store on Blanding Boulevard at Knight Boxx Road, the same store
struck by the Oxycontin thief in June.

Pharmacist Bret McBride said drug fraud is a problem everywhere.

"We had a wave of them for a couple of months earlier this year, but
then it started dying out," he said.

In trying to assess whether a prescription is valid, McBride said
pharmacists look closely at a person's demeanor and whether they
appear nervous or jittery.

"A lot of it is just intuition," he said. "If we suspect something,
we call the physician's office to verify the prescription."

If the prescription cannot be verified, it is not filled, he said.
It's up to the individual pharmacist whether to send the person
asking for the prescription on his way or try to stall him and call
police.

"It's a professional judgment call," McBride said. "There are safety
considerations."