Brian Freskos | Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.
February 22, 2011
Feb. 17—When Lt. J.A. LeBlanc arrived at the New Hanover County Vice and Narcotics Unit in 2001, one detective could handle the volume of prescription drug cases. Now, he said, all 16 detectives investigate them.
Street drugs such as cocaine and heroin have long been the targets of authorities seeking to root out illicit substances. But in recent years, growing prescription drug abuse has shifted law enforcement’s focus to stemming the flow of dangerous medications onto the black market.
Abuse of prescription medications, particularly narcotic pain relievers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, is rising precipitously, leading White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske last June to call it the “nation’s fastest-growing drug problem.” Between 1998 and 2008, treatment admissions for prescription pill addicts posted a 400 percent increase, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Southeastern North Carolina has not escaped what many law enforcement officials call an epidemic. Between 2004 and 2010, the New Hanover County Vice and Narcotics Unit seized nearly 15,100 pills — 3,749 of them in 2010 alone, the largest county pill haul in four years.
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