Jojy Cheriyan MD,MPH - May 21,2015

Before the shock of the bribery- scheme operation in New York- New Jersey gets over, in which 26 doctors pleaded guilty,another crackdown in the southern U.S has shocked the medical community.

Twenty-two pharmacists and doctors were arrested in the largest-ever operation aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been raiding pain clinics, pharmacies and other locations in four southern states as part of a crackdown on prescription pain drug abuse. This crackdown called  "Operation Pilluted" included doctors and pharmacists, and was started in March 2014. The 15-month investigation targeted areas in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and a total of 280 people were arrested on charges related to illegal pharmaceutical trafficking activities, the DEA stated in a press release.

The focus of the operation was to find those involved in distributing and prescribing substances such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and (alprazolam)Xanax.

"The doctors and pharmacists arrested in the Operation Pilluted are nothing more than drug traffickers who prey on the addiction of others while abandoning the Hippocratic Oath adhered to faithfully by thousands of doctors and pharmacists each day across this country," DEA Special Agent in Charge Keith Brown said in a statement.

In addition to the arrests for illegally distributing drugs such as the painkillers, 51 vehicles, 202 weapons, and about $404,000 in cash was seized. 73 seizure warrants led to a seizure of about $11.6 million, plus $6.7 million in real property.

Abuse of addictive prescription medicines has become a growing epidemic in the United States. In 2013, about 44,000 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred, more than half attributed to prescription drugs, the agency said. Of those, 71 percent (16,235) were attributed to opioid overdoses. Several drug-makers have been developing abuse resistant opioid painkillers in an effort to address the growing problem.

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