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PRESCRIPTION Drugs
Task Force Cases
In September 2004, Lebanon police and
The Greater Warren County Drug Task Force recovered
about 800 doses of OxyContin,
$392 and drug paraphernalia. The Warren County couple
were arrested two days after 1,125 of the prescription
painkillers were taken from a Lebanon pharmacy.
 A
recent arrest of subjects selling oxycodone
extended release tablets in
Warren County showed evidence that the 80mg. tablets
were selling for $30 a piece.
OxyContin® is an extended release
oxycodone product prescribed primarily for chronic
pain, and contains no over the counter medications.
Those abusing these drugs want an immediate “high”,
and will take steps to bypass the extended release
of the tablets. Abusing oxycodone extended release
tablets can be extremely dangerous since large amounts
of oxycodone are consumed in just one pill. Ingesting
an 80mg. tablet is like taking sixteen (16) standard
oxycodone doses at one time.
 Drug
task force officers in 2004 shut down a large criminal
enterprise involving millions of dosage units of alprazolam
coming into southwest Ohio through couriers traveling
to Texas to meet their Mexican connections.
Alprazolam has likely become the most abused benzodiazepine
in the country. The drug is taken orally, and abusers
can reach levels of 20-30 tablets per day in extreme
cases. Alprazolam is typically worth $3 a pill on the
street, and was the #1 prescription drug that our undercover
officers purchased last year.
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