Tagged: Drugs

The state says drug dealers around Ohio are developing new sources for prescription painkillers by buying them from senior citizens, sometimes as the patients leave pharmacies.

The report by the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network also blames the state's continuing rise of heroin use on addicts switching from prescription painkillers, which are more expensive and harder to obtain.

Orman Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, says once people become addicted to painkillers it's almost inevitable they'll switch to heroin.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A judge is scheduled to sentence the final two defendants today in a marijuana case that state investigators have called an example of cartel-sponsored drug production. All 11 men arrested last September after a sweep of a growing operation in Muskingum County have pleaded guilty.