DrugBuyers.Com: Kentucky BR 1133

Posted on Sat, Feb. 05, 2005

Drug abusers find what they need online

Prescription painkillers now come C.O.D.

By Lee Mueller

EASTERN KENTUCKY BUREAU

WHITESBURG - To find the newest trend in prescription drug abuse in Eastern Kentucky, says Letcher County Sheriff Danny Webb, just follow the UPS, FedEx and DHL trucks.

Many of Eastern Kentucky's painkiller-peddling drug doctors have been driven out of business under the scrutiny of law enforcement, but their customers are now turning to the Internet for prescription drugs.

In recent months, drug dealers and addicts in Letcher County "have been wearing out our UPS and FedEx drivers," Webb said. The trucks drive up deep hollows and along creekside roads to deliver, C.O.D., neatly wrapped parcels containing pain killers and tranquilizers.

Attorney General Greg Stumbo yesterday proposed legislation to crack down on what he described as a flood of black-market Internet drug sales in the state. The bill, based on laws in Nevada and Florida, the only two states so far to have addressed the issue, would require that Internet pharmacies register with the state to do business.

Any packages of drugs would include a registration number, which delivery services could check to make sure the seller is legally registered.

Webb, a former Kentucky State Police post commander in Hazard, said he hopes the legislation is more than just "lip service."

"This has become a major problem," he said. "We've gotten rid of the doctors who overprescribe. You almost need a signed certificate now saying you have cancer to get a prescription for OxyContin here, but you can still call up Web sites on the Net here and have these pain pills legally delivered to your house. It's just crazy."

It's also easy, he said.

Replying to an Internet message, a hypothetical resident fills out a form and receives a phone call from a doctor, he said. The doctor tells the patient he is going to bill the patient's credit card $110 to $175 for a consultation, asks for pain symptoms and then sends, say, 100 pain-killing Lorcet 10s and 90 Xanax tranquilizers, he said.

Often, the pills are sent collect-on-delivery, he said.

It's ironic, Webb said, that it is illegal in Kentucky to mail a beer, but anyone with a computer can get controlled substances in the mail without seeing a doctor.

Kentucky's problem mirrors a national trend. Kentucky state police already are investigating Internet drug sales and are working with federal drug enforcement agents on a case in Florida, said Maj. Mike Sapp, who attended Stumbo's news conference in Frankfort.

So far, the investigation has shut down seven Internet pharmacies and prompted several doctors to surrender their licenses, he said.

At the same time, Webb said, parcel-service drivers are under siege. At times they feel more like they're working for Brinks than UPS or Federal Express, he said.

In Hazard, Trooper Bruce Kelley arrested a suspect last fall who stole drugs from a parked UPS truck at a convenience store on the Knott-Perry county line while the driver was inside. The suspect knew what he was looking for, Kelley said.

"These people who get those pills through the Internet, they know how these things are packaged," said Kelley, the state trooper.

Many of the pill packages list "Customer Care Center" and Florida cities as return addresses.

So far, Kelley said, such robberies are rare, although some areas of Eastern Kentucky average up to 25 prescription-drug deliveries a day.

"You talk to the delivery drivers -- they have to do their job -- but they're concerned about this," he said.

George Moore, commonwealth's attorney for Montgomery, Rowan, Bath and Menifee counties, said he has been surprised that a UPS or FedEx driver has not been killed by someone looking to steal the pills.

Drivers have reported people following their trucks or trying to flag them down before they reach their destinations, Kelley said.

"Most of the people who get the stuff are willing to pay for it," Kelley said. "They just can't wait for it to get to their house."

Matt Montgomery, president of UPS Union Local 651, which represents about 300 drivers in Eastern and Central Kentucky, said the problem is bigger than the public realizes.

He cited recent incidents in Powell and Clark counties. In Stanton, he said, police were called when an irate man went into a UPS facility demanding his prescription drugs. In Clark County, a man was involved in a car accident after he couldn't get his prescription at a UPS building.

"Our drivers are calling us and telling us, 'We're being pulled over on the side of the road and being demanded to give over their drugs,'" he said. "Drivers have called and said, 'Hey, we've been offered cash to let us get our package so you don't have to give us the proper ID.'"

Drivers delivering drugs now require recipients to show driver's licenses.

UPS officials did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.

Under Kentucky's proposed legislation, Internet pharmacies also would have to connect to the state KASPER system, which tracks prescription drugs in Kentucky.

"If they ship here and we identify that they're not registered and they're not meeting standards of the act, then we confiscate their drugs," Stumbo said.

In cases where drugs are being shipped in unmarked packages, law enforcement agents will rely on information from UPS drivers, such as frequent deliveries and multiple packages addressed to different names at the same house, Stumbo said.

That would provide legal grounds for a search warrant, he said.

The bill also would require Kentuckians to have proof of a face-to-face meeting with a doctor within six months before the prescription is delivered in order for it to be valid.

Any entity found to be illegally shipping drugs could be fined by the Board of Pharmacy up to $100,000 or could be charged with a felony, Stumbo said.

The bill will be sponsored by Rep. Mike Weaver, D-Elizabethtown, in the House and Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, in the Senate.

Weaver said he expects the bill to be on a fast track and reach the House Judiciary Committee by the end of next week.

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