Prescription Addiction: For Pain, Pleasure, And Profit

Drug enforcement officials say they're casting a wider net over Norwalk when it comes to the sale and use of illegal substances.

Instead of just focusing on common street drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and even heroine, officials with the Special Services Division of the  have been on alert for a wave that's been gaining strength with everyone from blue-collar workers to those on Wall Street.

"Prescription drugs have become the thing," said Detective Mark Edwards of the special services division. "People are trying to obtain prescription drugs fraudently, or they are selling them illegally. It's become a much bigger problem recently.

Percocet, Oxycontin, Oxycodone, and Adderall have become the prescription drugs of choice for most users, according to Edwards. There have been at least 10 arrests in Norwalk over the last two months for the illegal sale and distribution of prescription drugs.

"A lot of people are prescribed for conditions," said Edwards. "But once they get over them, they find themselves hooked on the drugs. People like the strength of those drugs instead of the street level ones. When they can no longer get them legally, that's when the fraud starts."

"It's been a mess," said a local pharmacist who spoke to Patch on the condition of anonymity. "We have seen of a rash of incidents lately where people try to get prescriptions by forging a doctor's signature or having someone else buy them for them."

According to the , the most common ways that people try to obtain prescription drugs illegally include:

• Legitimate prescription pads are stolen from physicians' offices and prescriptions are written for fictitious patients.
• Some patients, in an effort to obtain additional amounts of legitimately prescribed drugs, alter the physician's prescription.
• Some drug abusers will have prescription pads from a legitimate doctor printed with a different call back number that is answered by an accomplice to verify the prescription.
• Some drug abusers will call in their own prescriptions and give their own telephone number as a call back confirmation.
• Computers are often used to create prescriptions for nonexistent doctors or to copy legitimate doctors' prescriptions.

The Norwalk Police Department has seen people who gained their prescriptions legally or illegally, trying to profit from the pills they obtain. On Dec. 14, police arrested , a 42-year old woman who worked in Norwalk for selling oxycodone to undercover officers on two different occasions on the same day.

According to Mark Suda, an officer with special services, McRae had a prescription for oxycodone that she filled twice a month, consisting of a total of 480 pills. The prescriptions were allegedly worth $350 each.

Officer Suda said McRae sold the first undercover officer 20 pills of oxycodone at $20 a piece. Later that day, McRae allegedly sold another undercover officer 28 pills, also at $20 per pill. That's $960 for a short day of work.

"She was clearly trying to profit," said Edwards. "And it was a big profit. If you're able to obtain a prescription and have a small co-pay, your profit margin is going is going to be really, really high."

The rise of the prescription drug problem in Norwalk hasn't been limited to just the working class. "We've seen the younger generation involved in this today. Kids are trying to obtain prescriptions for drugs like Xanax and Adderall."