Drug Taskforce Busts Up Alleged $360K Prescription Pill Ring

You’d have to be under a rock not to realize heroin and crack aren’t the only drugs that are destroying lives right here in southwestern Pennsylvania. Take it from this Pittsburgh criminal defense attorney who regularly defends people accused of drug offenses: Sometimes, the prescription stuff is just as dangerous and damaging to a life – if not more.

The fate of your freedom and future, when charged with a drug crime, lies in the hands of the lawyer you have chosen to defend your case. The penalties you will be subjected to for a drug crime is of a wide variety, ranging from possession of drugs to even drug trafficking and would also involve payment of hefty fines along with substantial jail time. Even after serving the time, your conviction will be accessible as public information to everyone from schools, your existing or potential employers, to the professional licensing boards. So, drug offenses will have overarching effects in your future.

Therefore, you must hire an experienced Pittsburgh Criminal Defense Attorney who will scrutinize every aspect of your case, how you got pulled over, and the way police arrested you or searched your property. He or she will try their best to find out if your constitutional rights have been violated in the process and if it has, then they could fight for the dismissal of the charges. However, you need an aggressive lawyer with a comprehensive knowledge of the law in order to find such loopholes in the case to finally get a favorable outcome in the end.

Luckily, the rise in prescription drug abuse is something local law enforcement officials are aware of – and are trying to do something about. Just last week in Westmoreland County, the Westmoreland Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force used a confidential informant to make a series of controlled purchases, which led to the arrest of a trio accused of organizing a prescription pill ring.

One of the women charged has been accused of stealing hundreds of Oxycodone pills from the pharmacy where she worked, later selling them. This was, by all accounts, a major drug operation – with the drugs sold estimated at about $370,000. What’s she going to get out of it? She’s probably spent the money she made selling the drugs, and the fines she’s facing if she’s convicted will suck up whatever extra money she has for a long time. She probably can’t begin to pay the fines until she completes a prison sentence – and it’s highly likely that she will go to prison for several years. I wonder if she still thinks it was worth it.

Here’s the thing about Oxycodone: In my experience, it is so much more dangerous than street drugs because normal people like you and me – people who have no intention of abusing a drug – often find themselves addicted through no real fault of their own.

It happens all too often: Client injures his back, or needs surgery. Client undergoes the surgery and is prescribed medication by a medical doctor to assuage the pain while they are healing. By the time the wound heals, they are dealing with a new affliction: Addiction.

Take it from a criminal defense lawyer who sees this stuff happen often: Don’t tempt fate. If these kinds of incidents occur, then do not delay in hiring a skilled Pittsburgh Criminal Defense Attorney.

If you have kids, don’t keep old pain, anxiety, and other meds in the house – make sure you get rid of the stuff. Pennsylvania has a program that allows you to take these drugs to a drop off point. There are twenty-three locations in Washington County and forty-seven in Allegheny County. It’s easy to find someplace to take the meds. Do it.

Because normal people – people like your son or daughter or teacher or neighbor – have had their lives turned upside down after just a few pills.