Tagged: Drugs

New efforts to crack down on drug trafficking in Ohio include legislation targeting hidden compartments in vehicles and changes in how drivers can use the Highway Patrol hotline.

Authorities have raided a doctor's two offices and home in southwest Ohio, seizing boxes of records in an investigation of possible prescription drug abuse.

The Dayton Daily News reports that 69-year-old Dr. Han M. Yang says authorities are "off-base" in their allegations. He says he has surrendered his license to practice medicine in Ohio and will give up his practice. He also says he will seek an attorney.

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.