MEMPHIS, TN – The sale of controlled substances is out of control in the mid-South and cops say it's one of the biggest problems in Shelby County.
"The abuse, the diversion of pharmaceutical drugs is the fastest growing problem in Shelby County,” explained Special Agent Keith Brown, Resident Agent in Charge at the Memphis Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “Typically in a lot of these cases you see Oxycodone (or Oxycontin), Hydrocodone, which is also commonly known as Lortab, and Xanax."
Drug enforcement officers say that's what led them to the office of Dr. Daniel Fearnow last week. Fearnow was arrested and charged with 12 counts of writing illegal prescriptions.
Brown said people who sell illegal drugs are not “any different from drug dealers.”
“They're not any different than the people standing on the corner selling heroin, selling cocaine,” he said. “They're drug dealers.”
Pharmacist Charlie Smith said he sees it all the time.
"A small store like this, you see a pattern,” Smith said. “And it's growing by leaps and bounds. Everybody comes and they want a controlled substance."
Smith keeps close watch over the controlled substances that cross his counter, and so does the state.
"We have to report to the state every two weeks the number of controlled substances we dispense,” Smith explained. “And the doctor’s name who dispensed it, and the patient’s name and the quantity. All the stores are required to do it twice a month.”
Brown believes the problem will only get worse.
“These meds are coming from lots of places -- from doctors, from pharmacies, theft, prescription fraud, prescription abuse,” he said. “The problem is we've been treating it too differently, and we need to treat it as it is, which is drug dealing."
He said people “look at pharmaceuticals abuse differently than they look at crack cocaine abuse and heroin abuse.”
“People think that they’re almost different problems, and one's a lesser problem,” he said. "We get lots of support from people when their neighbors are selling cocaine or heroin out of the house. We want that same support [on this issue]. Call the DEA, call the Sheriff's office, call the Memphis Police Department when you suspect there's a pharmacy that's over-prescribing or prescribing illegally."
