Pubdate: Sat, 04 Aug 2001 Source: Florida Times-Union (FL) Copyright: 2001 The Florida Times-Union Contact: http://www.times-union.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/155 Author: R. Michael Anderson 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe