The prescription drug problem in Ohio is urging Senator Sherrod Brown to ask United States Attorney General Eric Holder to establish federal squads to fight the state's growing problem. Senator Brown wrote a letter this week to Holder requesting the formation of two tactical diversion squads that would be based in Ohio. The squads will help fight pill mills and crimes resulting from prescription drug abuse.
"The prescription drug abuse problem in Ohio is worsening each day," Senator Brown said. "It's shocking that as the seventh largest state in the nation, our state is not home to a single tactical diversion squad to combat this issue - even though our neighbors in Kentucky and Michigan are. That's why I'm urging Attorney General Holder to establish two tactical diversion squads in Ohio - one in the north and one in the south. We must do all we can to stop this epidemic, which has already cost so many lives and futures in Ohio."
Tactical diversion squads work with the Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate, disrupt and dismantle those suspected of violating drug laws. Currently, there are 37 working tactical diversion squads, but none yet operating in Ohio.
The state of Ohio is just behind Florida in the number of prescriptions filled for oxycodone. The death rate in Ohio from accidental drug overdoses increased more than 350 percent between 1999 and 2008, will no end to the problem in sight. Just four years ago, in 2007, accidental drug poisonings overtook car accidents and suicides as the biggest cause of injury death in Ohio.
