MEDICINE EASY TO FIND ON THE STREET

There is never a shortage of prescription pills on the street in
Onslow County.While cocaine and marijuana sources run dry from time
to time, the supply of prescription pills seems endless, said
narcotics officers with the Onslow County Sheriff's and Holly Ridge
Police departments. "Drugs are about supply and demand, but with
pills, the supply is so great there is never a shortage of them,"
Holly Ridge Police Chief John Maiorano said. "The most popular are
the opiates."Opiates, derived from opium poppies, are prescribed
mainly as pain killers, OxyContin being the most recognized brand
name available, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. And
there has been an upswing in the number of pain pills available on
the street in Onslow County recently, Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland
said. Narcotics detectives with the Sheriff's Department explained
that the source of prescription pills has them constantly changing
enforcement tactics. "There is no legitimate source of cocaine, but
prescription pills are easily obtained legally," a Sheriff's sergeant
in the narcotics division told The Daily News. His name is withheld
from publication because he frequently works undercover operations.

The sergeant said there are several ways pills hit the street: People
go "doctor shopping," which means they visit several different
doctors until they find one willing to issue prescriptions without
asking a lot of questions.

They steal prescription pads and write their own counterfeit
prescriptions. People go to local methadone clinics claiming to be
hooked on heroin just to get the pills prescribed to help kick the habit.

"They will go on Saturday knowing the clinic is closed on Sunday and
get two days worth of pills and either abuse the supply themselves or
sell it to someone else," Sutherland said.

People are also "stepping inside the system to get pills," Maiorano
said. In May, detectives with the Holly Ridge and Surf City police
departments teamed up to make one of the largest drug busts in the
state this year. A Kinston pharmaceutical distribution center
employee who police say stole and distributed more than 55,000 pills
with a street value of more than $250,000 was arrested during a sting
operation.

Sutherland said that while street-level enforcement remains the same
for pills and illicit drugs like cocaine and marijuana, the
prescription pill supply has to be attacked in a different way.

Undercover buys, the use of informants and traffic stops all help in
the fight to control prescription drug abuse.

But, Sutherland said, law enforcement and the medical community need
to form a stronger partnership to ensure people who need prescription
drugs for legitimate medical reasons can get them while preventing
access by people who plan to abuse the drugs.