RX ABUSE ON RISE

Officials: Availibility Facilitates Use

Editor's note: This is the second part of a three-part series on
prescription drug abuse.

Agent Frank Altieri sits inside the office of the Mississippi Bureau of
Narcotics-Oxford District and talks intently, but it looks like he is
expecting the phone to ring at any minute.

He says the illegal sale of prescription drugs keep him busy. Altieri is an
agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Pharmaceutical Diversion Unit.

During the course of a one-hour interview, Altieri received a phone tip
from a member of the State Pharmacy Board. He said it was "big" but would
not elaborate.

Availability of prescription drugs

East said the prescription drug trade has evolved from just forging
prescriptions or burglarizing pharmacies.

"A lot of these people are buying these drugs by the gross on the Internet
with no prescription, or bringing them in from Mexico," Lafayette
County-Metro Narcotics Commander Joey East said.

East reiterated a point made by Altieri that law enforcement might not be
catching many of the prescription drug abusers and traffickers because of
lack of training to identify legal drugs that are illegally obtained.

"There's no telling how many are getting by us. I don't know if we are
trained well enough to know," said Joey East, county metro narcotics
commander. "You may stop a car, and they may have some pills and no
prescriptions. They might say they left the script at home. It's just so
hard to tell where they got them from."

Local pharmacies

East said most of his tips that lead to arrest come from local pharmacists.
He said pharmacists are willing to cooperate because "it's bad for their
business."

But one local pharmacist said that he doesn't see many of the drugs being
obtained illegally at his pharmacy.

"We've been open for one year and three months. We have turned one person
in. The really good ones never get caught or even raise suspicion," said
Terry Klepzig, owner and pharmacist at Klepzig's Family Pharmacy.

He said most of the suspicious prescriptions are made through phone calls,
and when he becomes suspicious, he calls the doctor's office to ask about
the prescription.

He said most pharmacists are not trained to identify what might be a fake
prescription order, but most pharmacists just use their instincts.

Doctors or nurses ordering a narcotic drug must give the pharmacist a DEA
code number before they can receive the prescription.

"We know all of the nurses voices at each of the doctor's offices in town.
If someone is trying to pass a fake prescription over the phone, they are
usually nervous and saying things out of order. It tips us off. We can have
someone waiting to arrest them when they come to pick it up," Klepzig said.

Klepzig said he has worked at other pharmacies in Oxford that made quite a
few tips to police.

Other Oxford pharmacy workers talked about their experiences with fake
prescriptions.

"It doesn't happen here a lot, maybe once every three months," said
Christie Moore, a pharmacist at Coleman's Healthmart Pharmacy.

A representative of Gathright-Reed Drug Company said the pharmacy does not
handle phone-in prescriptions, and only handles refills by phone; so
would-be forgers are less likely to pass a fake prescription over the
phone. She said they like to be able to see the person with the written
prescription.

Nurses

Altieri said nurses sometimes have trust with pharmacists because of their
jobs, and they abuse that trust.

At the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, two nurses talked about their problems
with prescription drugs.

"My son was in the hospital, and we were sure he was dying. I had Demerol
pump at home, and I used it. I became addicted," said an unidentified nurse
at last Wednesday's Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

The meeting was held at the RSVP center in Oxford. She still works as a
nurse. She was able to save her job after she completed treatment.

"I've peed in more cups than I would want to tell you about," the nurse said.

Another nurse at the meeting talked about her experiences with prescriptions.

"I was addicted to cough medications, and I started calling in
prescriptions. I was approached by my supervisor a few times. I didn't
care. After about the fourth time, he fired me. My husband had no idea, nor
did my family. I had to do treatment," the nurse said.

She also still works as a nurse.